Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

That's another film I don't really like yet have watched multiple times. Young Cronenberg still hadn't figured out pacing at all, but there are still creepy moments. I last watched it around the beginning of the Covid pandemic and honestly that improved the experience!

[indianasmith]

THE STRANGERS CHAPTER ONE (2024) My girls and I went to see this one for Father's Day - they are my horror movie partners - and it's a pretty dark, creepy film with several homages to the original THE STRANGERS and a bit of a cliffhanger ending. Well, not exactly a cliffhanger, but a lot of stuff left unresolved.  Quick summary - a young woman and her boyfriend are traveling cross country and have car trouble in a small town, so they rent a cabin for the night. Creepy people start stalking them, and next thing you know they are being chased/tortured/stabbed, etc.
Then the baddies fade away as the police arrive, and Maya is rescued, wounded but stable, and . . . to be continued!
meh, I've had worse Sunday afternoons. 3.5/5

[indianasmith]

NECROMENTIA (2021) - Some drug addict makes a deal with a demon to open a portal to hell so the junkie can rescue his little brother and the demon can recover the girl he loved when he was human.  I think.  This one had me nodding off. 2/5

[M.10rda]

THE ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA (1964):
Only the third film I've been able to watch to completion this (busy) month, and it's only ten minutes long. Since it's of limited interest to most viewers, I'll just describe it to you for the record! This totally silent yet full-color short focuses on long close-ups of rough-looking Joseph Diaz as he....... reads the origin of Captain America! Unlike similar Warholian exercises in pointless voyeurism, director Paul Morrissey actually provides cutaways to panel after panel of beee-yoo-tiful early 60s Jack Kirby art and story............ so automatically THE ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA is a lot more interesting to sequential art lovers than Morrissey's FLESH, to cite a film I watched earlier this year, as well as the late 70s craptastic CAPTAIN AMERICA feature, which I also watched earlier this year. When he finishes the comic, Diaz stares off in the distance and then stands up. What he's thinking about is anyone's Kuleshovian guess. Does he want a sandwich? Or sex with Joe Dallesandro? Me, I think he wants more spectacular Jack Kirby comics!!!

3.5/5

Mild nerd criticism: there's one close-up of Diaz holding an issue of "Tales To Astonish" (which featured the Hulk and Ant-Man) when he's obviously reading the contents of an issue of "Tales of Suspense" (which starred Cap).

Mild nerdgasm: Several other early Silver Age Marvel issues lay on the floor around Diaz. If Diaz or Morrissey saved those issues and kept them in nice condition, today they could pay for this film's production a few thousand times over.

[zombie no.one]

Mild nerdgasm: Several other early Silver Age Marvel issues lay on the floor around Diaz. If Diaz or Morrissey saved those issues and kept them in nice condition, today they could pay for this film's production a few thousand times over.

popped into my local charity shop the other day and they'd had a bunch of presumably rare (judging by the price) old superhero comics donated. I browsed a few, and they'd stuck their price stickers directly onto the front of the comics! good luck peeling those off without damaging em 

[lester1/2jr]

4D Man (1959) - I saw this like 15 years ago and loved it, forgot everything about it, then watched it again and loved it again. Two brothers vie for scientific stardom and the same girl, a fetching Demi Moore prequel brunette who does the East of Eden "I don't care if I wreak havoc on these guys' lives" routine.

In you like the real sciencey sci fi like, say, Phase IV definitely check this one out. Part of the appeal is how nondescript and potentially lame it looks, but isn't. This ain't no MST3K affair.

5/5

[M.10rda]

Mild nerdgasm: Several other early Silver Age Marvel issues lay on the floor around Diaz. If Diaz or Morrissey saved those issues and kept them in nice condition, today they could pay for this film's production a few thousand times over.

popped into my local charity shop the other day and they'd had a bunch of presumably rare (judging by the price) old superhero comics donated. I browsed a few, and they'd stuck their price stickers directly onto the front of the comics! good luck peeling those off without damaging em 

I'd take 'em even w/ the stickers! You go right back there and grab those - please! (I'll lose sleep over this!)   

[indianasmith]

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD (2020)

   Yeah, I'm on a bit of a movie binge this week!  And this movie was the best one I've seen in a while.  A crazy blend of serious war film, gender conflict, battle drama, and SYFY creature feature, I will say that I was never once bored!  Chloe Grace Moretz is brilliant Maude Garrett, a WW2 WAAF Flight Officer who boards a B-17 just before takeoff from a small Pacific island base to deliver a top secret package to its destination.  She is asked to ride in the ball turret of the B-17 during takeoff, but when she tried to climb out, the handle breaks and she is stuck there with only her radio headset to communicate with the misogynistic crew.  But what she has to communicate is the problem - first, that there is some bizarre creature clinging to the plane, doing its best to rip the wiring and fuel lines apart, and secondly, that they are being shadowed by an enemy aircraft.  As the plane begins experiencing equipment failure, the captain and crew are left to wonder - is the damage caused by the "gremlin" that only Garret can see, or is something in her mysterious package causing it to malfunction?  Full of action, including a dramatic attack by a flight of Japanese zeros and a terrifying high-altitude battle with the monstrous gremlin, this movie is so fun that it almost makes you forget what a ridiculous premise it's riding. I was THOROUGHLY entertained throughout!  5/5

[Rev. Powell]

QUEENDOM (2023): A queer Russian performance artist fears for her freedom as she clashes with the law. Not so much a portrait in courage--though Gena Marvin shows plenty--as an experience of growing fear, as she pushes her luck by publicly parading in provocative drag-adjacent costumes to the point where the only options left for her are murder, imprisonment, conscription, or exile. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

for the last two nights I've been watching a documentary on black mold. will report when I'm done

[Dr. Whom]

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Saw this because I wondered whether it was as good as everyone says it is. In a word: yes. Godzilla really looks mean in this one. And you get to see some cool Japanese WW II hardware.

[lester1/2jr]

I try to finish Black Mold Exposure and it gets longer. I somehow have more left than where I left off last night. It's like black mold itself

[FatFreddysCat]

"Serial Mom" (1994)
Kathleen Turner is hilarious in John "Pink Flamingos" Waters' campy black comedy about a seemingly perfect, sitcom-esque suburban housewife whose dark side comes out whenever someone threatens her family's tranquility. When she's eventually arrested, her trial turns her into a media sensation. Waters has said that this satirical sickie is his favorite out of all the movies he's made.
Bonus points for the cameo appearance by L7 in a nightclub scene.

[Rev. Powell]

ANIMALIA (2023): A pregnant woman in Morocco is stranded away from her rich husband when an apocalyptic religious event sweeps the globe. Slow and meditative, so you have to be in the mood for it, but it's extremely thoughtful and artistic, touching on issues of Moroccan society (especially the class and gender divides) and wider existential concerns about humanity's place in the universe. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Black Mold Exposure (2009) - Apparently, some people get exposed to mold and it completely ruins their life and they have to live like an extreme OCD case for like ever. I'm glad it didn't happen to me and yet, you can't help but wonder if they're faking it. They will be like "my face is burning from these chemicals" but their face looks totally fine. How do you approach an epidemic that affects random and not very many people so severely?

Providing some levity is a man on the street reporter guy who asks unsuspecting people in Times Square about black mold. One of the main characters now has 2 massively successful clothing lines. I wonder if she still does all the anti chemical stuff? Her husband washes his clothes 15 times before he wears them.

5/5 in celebration of finally finishing it



from wikipedia

Stachybotrys chartarum (/stækiːˈbɒtrɪs tʃɑːrˈtɛərəm/, stak-ee-BO-tris char-TARE-əm[2]), also known as black mold[3] is a species of microfungus that produces its conidia in slime heads.

Because of misinformation, S. chartarum has been inappropriately referred to as toxic mold. A variety of health problems have been misattributed to S. chartarum.[4]