The German Doctor

 

The German Doctor 2013

• Director: Lucia Puenzo
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Alex Brendemühl, Florencia Bado, Diego Peretti, Natalia Oreiro, Elena Roger
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? The subject
• Seen:  23 November 2023                

             Patagonia 1960. Germans in Argentina? Bad vibes from the beginning.

       An Argentine family moves south to take over the mother’s family hotel. Their first guest is the charming but mysterious German doctor of genetics. More bad vibes.

       The daughter, Lilith (Bado) has a growth disorder. The doctor wants to experiment with her to help her grow and become a sonnenmenschen.

       It is slowly and quietly chilling because we know that he’s Mengele, the murdering doctor from Auschwitz, and because he’s not the only Nazi in the area. And because we know it’s a true story, against the background of the stunningly beautiful Patagonian mountains.

 4* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changeling

 

Changeling 2008

• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Seen by this director: many
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Angelina Jolie – Many
• John Malkovich – Many
• Amy Ryan – Birdman, The Wire, Dan in Real Life, Gone Baby Gone, The War of the Worlds, Homicide, I’ll Fly Away
• Colm Feore – Thor, The Caveman’s Valentine, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Slings and Arrows, The Chronicles of Riddick, Chicago, Titus, Face/Off
• Why? I remember liking it.
• Seen:  Once before. Now 22 November 2023        

             Los Angeles 1928. Christine (Jolie) is a single mother whose boy disappears. After months of anxiety and grief, he is found. Only it’s not the right boy. The cops won’t believe her and eventually lock her up in a mental hospital.

       It’s clear to the viewer quite early on that it’s a police cover-up and it is eventually revealed. It’s based on a true story and it is gripping. The exposé of the abuse and degradation of women is strong but the film is marred by Jolie’s beauty – though she does a good job of acting, either they should have downplayed her beauty or casted, for example, Frances McDormand or Meryl Streep in the part – and John Malkovich has chosen to play his role as an activist priest as a sleazy rabble rouser.

 3* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Caveman's Valentine

 

The Caveman’s Valentine 2001

• Director: Kasi Lemmons
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Colm Feore, Ann Magnusson, Aunjaneu Ellis-Taylor, Tamara Tunie, Jay Rodan, Rodney Eastman, Anthony Michael Hall, Kate McNeil
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Samuel L Jackson - Many
• Colm Feore – Thor, Changeling, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Slings and Arrows, The Chronicles of Riddick, Chicago, Titus, Face/Off
• Ann Magnuson – The United States of Leland, Panic Room, Desperately Seeking Susan
• Aunjaneu Ellis-Taylor – Get On Up, The Help
• Why? Jackson
• Seen:  20 November 2023                

             Romulus (Jackson) was once a student at Juilliard, a concert pianist and a composer. Now he’s known as Caveman because he lives in a kind of cave in a park in New York. He is schizophrenic, paranoid and hallucinatory but he does have moments of lucidity. During one of them he decides to catch the man responsible for the murder of a young friend.

       With the help of his daughter (Ellis-Taylor), a cop, an old friend who remembers him at his best and a couple of new friends who take pity on him and are astounded by his piano skills, he gets himself invited to the suspect’s house party.

       Jackson, in his waist-long dreadlocks, gives us one of his best roles, and that’s saying a lot.

 3 ½ * of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Deer HUnter

 

The Deer Hunter 1978

• Director: Michael Cimino
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Robert De Niro – Joy, The Silver Linings Playbook, Stardust, 15 Minutes, Flawless, Jackie Brown, Marvin’s Room, Heat, Frankenstein, The Awakening, Stanley and Iris, New York New York, 1900, Taxi Driver
• Christopher Walken – Jersey Boys, Seven Psychopaths, Hairspray, Romance and Cigarettes, Sarah Plain and Tall, Sleepy Hollow, Suicide Kings, The Addiction, Pulp Fiction, True Romance
• John Savage –Hair, many times
• John Cazale – A Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather
• Meryl Streep - many
• Why? A second chance
• Seen:  Once before. Now 19 November 2023        

       Pro-war? Anti-war? The first time I saw it, I disliked it intensely. Since then, many friends have insisted that it’s an anti-war film so I’ll give it another chance.

If you don’t know the story, Google it. Briefly, three fellow steel workers and friends go to Vietnam.

Hunting and weddings, two subjects that bore me to tears. So… fast forward. Patriotism, no thanks! Gung-ho machismo, so tiresome.

Sadistic Viet Cong – racist and untrue. No organised Russian roulette has ever been documented. And remember, it was the Americans who were the invaders. The Vietnamese were defending their country.

If the film is trying to be anti-war, it fails miserably. It enjoys wallowing in atrocities too much. It’s way too long and often boring and clichéd. It’s far from the masterpiece many claim it to be and nowhere near worth the many 10*-ratings. From me it gets a * for the beautiful mountains, the theme song and because he didn’t shoot the deer. Another * for the few occasions when the drama overrides the pretentious self-indulgence. And minus about 50* for the nauseating ‘God Bless America’ at the end.

 2* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Edge of Seventeen

 

The Edge of Seventeen 2016

• Director: Kelly Frieman Craig
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Haille Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Kyra Sedgwick, Woody Harrelson, Hayden Szeto, Alexander Calvert
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Haille Steinfeld – True Grit
• Haley Lu Richardson – Split
• Kyra Sedgwick – Born on the Fourth of July
• Woody Harrelson - many
• Why? Possibly good.
• Seen: 18 November 2023                 

             Nadine (Steinfeld) is seventeen and has a shitty life. According to herself. Her beloved father died, her mother (Sedgwick) is a flake, her older brother Darian (Jenner) is adored by all and knows it, her best and only friend Krista (Richardson) falls in love with Darian (total betrayal), and when she tells her history teacher (Harrelson) that she’s going to kills herself, he counters with, ‘I am too because I have a lousy job and a whinging student who always disturbs me at lunch.’

       It sounds like a comedy and it’s classed as a comedy, and yes, it’s funny. And yes, it’s still another film about (mostly) white rich suburban high school students in California who all have cars but it’s also massively depressing and much better than expected.

 4* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wind

 

The Wind 2018

• Director: Emma Tammi
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, Ashley Zukerman, Dylan McTee, Miles Anderson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen: 17 November 2023                 

             American Midwestern prairie, pioneer days. Two couples live on adjacent farms. They’re friends of necessity, not inclination. Emma (Telles), pregnant, is haunted by demons and kills herself. The husbands (Zukerman and McTee) go to town for winter provisions, leaving Lizzie (Gerard) alone. Either she goes mad, or she really is pursued by the same demons.

       The story is muddled and not very interesting but it’s well filmed and the actors are good. I would have preferred a real story of pioneers being driven mad by the constant prairie wind, though. I’m sure there were many.

 2½ * of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catfish

Catfish 2010

• Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: documentary
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• documentary
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen: 16 November 2023                 

             Nev is a photographer in NY and he’s come into Facebook contact with 8-year-old Abby in Michigan and her family. A documentary is, for no explained reason, started about this friendship, which grows quickly, especially between Nev and Abby’s mother Angel and her older sister, Megan.

       It’s all fake and Nev feels duped, because he is. He and his friends, the film makers, go to Michigan to confront Angela, who has made everything up. She gets all teary, she has a tough life and Nev forgives her.

       I’m left with a big ‘Huh?’ But it’s oddly interesting.

 3* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm

 

Storm 2005

• Director: Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Eric Ericsson, Eva Röse, Jonas Karlsson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Eva Röse – Äkta Människor
• Jonas Karlsson – Snömannen, Gustav IIIs äktenskap, Snoken, Stormen (The Tempest) on stage
• Why? Jonas Karlsson
• Seen: 13 November 2023                 

             Donny (Ericsson) is a cynical small town hick who has moved to Stockholm to write for Nöjesguiden, Stockholm’s version of Time Out.

       A tear in the barrier between dimensions brings Lova (Röse) to him. She gives him a box. They’re chased by a grim-looking man in a suit (Karlsson). They end up in a gaming hall, or actually in the game called Storm and…

       Well, it starts making a sort of sense after a while. Donny must go back in time and witness bad things he did in his life. Only the Man in the Suit tells him he didn’t really, Lova is lying.

       OK, not all that much sense but it’s captivating. Funny, nightmarish and a little profound, like it might be symbolic, or existential or something.

       And I do like Jonas Karlsson.

 3 ½ or maybe even 4* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Avenue

 

Grand Avenue 1996

• Director: Daniel Sackheim
• Seen by this director: The Glass House
• Based on the book by Greg Sarris
• Cast: Irene Bedard, Tantoo Cardinal, Eloy Casados, Alexis Cruz, Deena Dakota, Diane Debassige, Jenny Gago, Cody Lightning, A Martinez, Simi Mehta, August Schellenberg, Sheila Tousey
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Irene Bedard – Smoke Signals
• Tantoo Cardinal – Smoke Signals, The Education of Little Tree, Dances with Wolves
•  Eloy Casados - Frost/Nixon, White Men Can’t Jump, Down and Out in Beverly Hills
• Cody Lightning – Smoke Signals
• August Schellenberg - 45 RPM, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Geronimo
• Sheila Tousey - Skinwalkers
• Why? The subject
• Seen: 12 November 2023                 

             Mollie (Tousey) seeks a new life in California with her children when her husband dies and his family makes it clear that they are not welcome on the reservation.

       They get help from Mollie’s cousin Anna (Gago) who lives with her family on Grand Avenue but life in the city is not easy. Bad housing, low-paying back-breaking jobs, racism, gangs, teen rebellion, machismo, drugs, illness. But also friendship, solidarity, past loves, family from the rez, reconnection with the tribe’s traditions.

       It’s not always an easy film to watch, but you don’t want to miss this one. Especially if you love Smoke Signals, which shares several of the same actors.

 4* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House of the Devil

 

The House of the Devil 2009

• Director: Ti West
• Based on the book by Scott Spencer
• Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Werwig, AJ Bowen, Dee Wallace
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jocelin Donahue – Doctor Sleep, He’s Just Not That Into You
• Tom Noonan – Wonderstruck, The Leftovers, The Pledge, The Astronaut’s Wife, The X Files, Heat, Mystery Train
• Mary Woronov – Rock’n’Roll High School
• Dee Wallace – ET and probably others
• Why? Good reviews
• Seen: 11 November 2023                 

             College student Sarah (Donahue) needs the money so she takes an unusual babysitting job in a Gothic mansion far from town. As you can see in the title, that‘s a big mistake.

       Standard stuff, not scary. It gets 1* because some of the visuals are good, another because Sarah is clad in jeans, a plaid shirt and sturdy trainers (most of the time) instead of the usual flimsy see-through white nightgown.

       But really, don’t bother.

 2* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waking the Dead

 

Waking the Dead 2000

• Director: Keith Gordon
• Seen by this director: Episodes of Leftovers, Homicide Life on the Street
• Based on the book by Scott Spencer
• Cast: Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Hipp, Hal Holbrook, Janet McTeer, Molly Parker
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Billy Crudup – Public Enemies, Big Fish, Almost Famous
• Jennifer Connelly – Alita Battle Angel, American Pastoral, Winter’s Tale, Creation, He’s Just Not that into You, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Reservation Road, A House of Sand and Fog, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock, Requiem for a Dream, Dark City, Labyrinth
• Hal Holbrook – most memorably Mark Twain
• Janet McTeer – The Woman in Black, Island, As You Like It, Wuthering Heights
• Molly Parker – American Pastoral, Darwin, The Road, Nine Lives, Sunshine
• Why? I remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 10 November 2023         

             Sarah (Connelly) is a radical leftist, anti-war activist, helper of Chilean refugees who have fled Pinochet. Fielding (Crudup) wants to be senator - or why not president? – so that he can represent the working class and change the system from within. They become passionate, if incompatible, lovers.

       She is killed by a car bomb targeting leftists.

       Or is she? Ten years later Fielding is about to be elected into Congress when he starts seeing her. Is he crazy? Or is she alive?

       It’s an unusually intelligent love story and an unusually sensitive political drama. Crudup and Connelly are terrific.

 

4* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where the Crawdads Sing

 

Where the Crawdads Sing 2022

• Director: Olivia Newman
• Based on the book by Delia Owens
• Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr, Garret Dillahunt
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Harris Dickinson – The Darkest Minds
• David Strathairn – Nomadland, UFO, American Pastoral, Hotel Marigold 2, The Tempest, Good Night and Good Luck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A League of Their Own, Matewan
• Michael Hyatt  - Like Crazy, Fame, The Big Bang Theory, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Wire, Veronica Mars, Six Feet Under, The Good Girl
• Garret Dillahunt – Widows, 12 Years a Slave, Any Day Now, Winter’s Bone, The Road, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men
• Why? Curious
• Seen: 9 November 2023                   

             Maybe it was all the hype that made me find the book underwhelming. Still, I’m curious about the film, expecting it to be beautifully filmed at least.

       It starts with the Marsh Girl (Edgar-Jones) being arrested for the murder of the town’s high school football hero (Dickinson). Reluctantly she tells the lawyer (Strathairn) her background.

       Kaya’s father (Dillahunt) is an abusive drunk. First her mother leaves, then her older siblings, then her pa. She’s all alone to fend for herself in the marsh.

       She survives by learning from the marsh with help from the kindly black couple who run a near-by general store (Hyatt and Macer) and the neighbour boy Tate (Smith) who teaches her to read. Etc.

       Yes, the nature is beautiful but the story is banal. Like the book, over-hyped.

 2* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's Love Got to Do With It?

 

What’s Love Got to Do with It? 1993

• Director: Brian Gibson
• Seen by this director: Still Crazy
• Based on the book by Tina Turner
• Cast: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Jennifer Lewis, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Angela Bassett – Black Panther Wakanda Forever, Black Panther, London Has Fallen, Akeelah and the Bee, Music of the Heart, Contact, Strange Days, Malcolm X, Boyz n the Hood
• Laurence Fishburne – Passengers, Man of Steel, Contagion, Bobby, Akeelah and the Bee, Matrix x 3, Mystic River, Othello, Boyz n the Hood, The Colour Purple, Apocalypse Now
• Vanessa Bell Calloway  - Lakeview Terrace
• Why? Tina
• Seen: Once before. Now 7 November 2023           

             Having seen and loved the musical Tina in London this past week and with a continuing sense of loss over her recent death, it’s time to see this film again.

       If you don’t know the story of Ike and Tina Turner, Google it, or better yet, read her book. If you don’t know Tina Turner’s music, by all means listen to it. Again and again.

       The film is based on Tina Turner’s autobiography. It’s not a pretty picture. It’s harrowing, heart-breaking. Tina deserved so much better and though the film ends on a high note, and we know that after years of struggle, her career exploded, and she had happiness in her private life as well. The film ends before that.

       Bassett and Fishburne are stellar as Tina and Ike. The musical in London was lovely. This film is fantastic. I saw Tina Turner in concert in Stockholm on her Farewell Tour, and there are no words.

       Tina. Always.

 5* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Book of Vision

 

The Book of Vision 2020

• Director: Carlo Hintermann
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Charles Dance, Lotte Verbeek, Sverrir Gudnason, Fillipo Nigro, Isolda Dychouk
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Charles Dance – Johnny English Strikes Again, Euphoria, That Good Night, Victor Frankenstein, Game of Thrones, Woman in Gold, The Imitation Game, Merlin, Starter for 10 Gosford Park, Hilary & Jackie, Michael Collins, Alien 3
• Lotte Verbeek – The Fault in Our Stars
• Sverrir Gudnason  - Upp till kamp, Julia, Cleo
• Why? Possibly good
• Seen: 6 November 2023                   

             Often visually pleasing, clearly an ambitious labour of love, this film doesn’t really work. It’s a mish-mash of modern times and the 18^th century, sort of fantasy, sort of history, possibly a ghost story. Or something.

       Eva (Verbeek) is a brilliant medical student who abandons her career to research Dr Anmuth (Dance) of the 18^th century who has written a soulful book about his patients.

       The same actors play the contemporary characters and the 18^th century characters. But are they the same people? There are various love stories too but they don’t help.

       What’s the point of this film?

 2* of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ping pong-kingen

 

Ping Pong-Kingen 2008

• Director: Jens Jonsson
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jerry Johansson, Hampus Johansson, Georgi Staykov, Ann-Sofi Nurmi, Fredrik Nilsson, Alicia Stewén
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Georgi Staykov – Luftslottet som sprängdes, Flickan som lekte med elden, Män som hatar kvinnor
• Fredrik Nilsson – 438 dagar, Bron, Simon och ekerna, Upp till kamp
• Why? Possibly good
• Seen: 5 November 2023                   

            Rille (J Johansson), fat, sullen, nerdy, bullied, and good at ping pong. Erik (H Johansson), his little brother, cute, popular, athletic, sometimes nice to Rille but mean to their mother (Nurmi), also fat with dreams of opening her own beauty salon and an old, fat, oddball lover (Nilsson) who owns a sports shop. The boys hate him. Their father (Staykov) works on an oil rig and his annual week-long visits are always a disappointment because he’s a drunk and a liar.

       It’s not very engaging, even with the banal family secret. What I like best is the northern Swedish winter and the five cats.

       But after a while I find that the film and characters have grown on me. I think I’ll want to see it again. A keeper, after all.

 3 ½ * of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt

 

Salt 2010

• Director: Phillip Noyce
• Seen by this director: Gone Baby Gone, Rabbit-Proof Fence
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Angelina Jolie – many
• Liev Schreiber – The Fifth Wave, The Butler, Mental, Repo Men, Taking Woodstock, Defiance, Kate & Leopold, Hamlet
• Chiwetel Eijiofor – Doctor Strange, The Martian, 12 Years a Slave, Dancing on the Edge, Children of Men, Kinky Boots, Love Actually, Twelfth Night, Dirty Pretty Things, Amistad
• Andre Braugher – The Mist, Homicide Life on the Street.
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 24 October 2023                     

             Spy film? No thanks. Oh well, the cast is good.

       Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a super duper CIA spy who is accused by a Russian defector of being a Russian mole scheduled to assassinate the US president. The film is all chasing and shooting and jumping from high places and other James Bondy things. Only more so. Salt makes Bony look like a wimp.

       If you like action and absurd spy stories, you’ll probably enjoy this a lot. It’s not bad for what it is but it loses ½ * because after all that violence and stuff, Jolie’s lip gloss is not even smudged and her eye make-up is still perfect.

 2 ½ * of 5  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old

 

Old 2021

• Director: M Night Shyamalan
• Seen by this director: Glass, Split, After Earth, The Happening, The Village, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, Wide Awake
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, Emun Elliott, Gustaf Hammarsten
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gael Garcia Bernal – Babel
• Rufus Sewell – Judy, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, The Tourist, Pillars of the Earth, Holiday, Amazing Grace, Paris je t’aime, The Taming of the Shrew Re-Told, A Knight’s Tale, Dark City, Hamlet, Middlemarch
• Alex Wolff – Hereditary
• Thomasin McKenzie – Last Night in Soho, Jojo Rabbit, The Hobbit
• Abbey Lee – The Dark Tower, Mad Max Fury Road
• Nikki Amuka-Bird – The Personal History of David Copperfield, Doctor Who, Jupiter Ascending, Luther, Coriolanus, Small Island
• Ken Leung – Star Wars the Force Awakens, Lost, X-Men the Last Stand
• Eliza Scanlan - Little Women
• Embeth Davidtz -  Mad Men, Junebug, Shackleton, Schindler’s List
• Emun Elliott – Trust, Star Wars the Force Awakens, Filth, Prometheus, Game of Thrones
• Gustaf Hammarsten – Stockholm, Cleo, Tillsammans
• Why? Shyamalan
• Seen: 23 October 2023                     

             A group of tourists at a luxurious tropical resort are brought to a beautiful and isolated beach and left for the day.

       It’s not the paradise they had expected. A dead body floats ashore. An old woman dies. The children suddenly age about five years. Nobody can leave. There’s no mobile service. The children age another five years. And so on.

       Time, to coin (i.e. steal) a phrase, is clearly out of joint.

       Shyamalan’s films are often dark and gloomy and spooky. This one is bright and sunny and spooky.

       For some reason, many reviewers on IMDb hate this film. I like it. It’s existential. Aging. Fear. Illness. Madness. All in Paradise. Symbolic, wouldn’t you say?

 4* of 5