The Girl in Blue (1973)

Cinerama Releasing
Directed by George Kaczender
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Scorpion Releasing)

Young lawyer David Selby can't shake the sight of a girl he meets fleetingly by chance on a ferry crossing. Years later when his girlfriend starts pressuring him for marriage, he spends his spare time trying to track down the girl with only the fewest of clues. After many false starts, he does eventually find her and they have a brief relationship. Meanwhile, his old girlfriend is moving out and they are on the verge of breaking up. Easy going, likable film shot on small town Canadian locations, but Selby's immature character gets a bit tiresome after awhile.

Godzilla (1954)

Toho Company (Japan)
Directed by Ishiro Honda
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Radiation from the H-bomb creates a giant monster living under the sea, which emerges to devastate much of Japan. An older zoologist wants to study it, while a young scientist has created a new weapon which will destroy it. However, he is hesitant to use it since it would only provide yet another opportunity for misuse by politicians and the military. It is this inner conflict of the scientist, not the rampaging destruction of Tokyo, that makes the film more than just another giant monster flick. The superb soundtrack by Akira Ifukube is dark and menacing, greatly enhancing the experience.

Insignificance (1985)

Directed by Nicolas Roeg
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

If you wanted to know how Marilyn Monroe would explain the theory of relativity to Albert Einstein, well this is your movie. Most of it takes place in a New York City hotel room where Einstein is staying on the night before he is supposed to testify before Congress. Marilyn drops in uninvited, also in town for movie shoot, because he was "first on her list to sleep with." Albert manages to brush off her attempted seduction, luckily for him since her brutish husband Joe DiMaggio shows up as well. There are no real characters here, just paper mache cut outs of famous personalities, thrown together in an incredible coincidence that results in a movie that feels more like a gimmick.

Charulata (1964)

Directed by Satyajit Ray
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

The bored housewife of an Indian intellectual and newspaper publisher falls in love with her husband's visiting cousin. He is young, carefree, a poet and musician, who encourages her in her own writing. When another friend of the family causes the newspaper to go under, he is beset by guilt and leaves unexpectedly. Charulata at first hides her grief, but finally breaks down when a letter arrives, not knowing that her husband is watching. A long, tedious melodrama, but impeccably filmed in black and white by cinematographer Subrata Mitra, whose camera is in love with leading lady Madhabi Mukherjee.

The Mikado (1939)

General Film Distributors (UK)
Directed by Victor Schertzinger
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

A Japanese prince goes incognito when his father forces him to become engaged to an unflattering lady of the court. He wanders the country as a minstrel, falling in love with the beautiful Yum-Yum. She is also engaged to another man, the reluctant grand executioner for the state. The Emperor demands that a beheading take place, so they fake the prince's death to satisfy him. However, this gets them their own execution date and they make a grand bargain to get out of it. The sets and costumes are superb, the songs by Gilbert and Sullivan classic, but the two main leads lack chemistry and as a result it is emotionally unsatisfying.

Watermark (2013)

Mongrel Media (Canada)
Directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Entertainment One)

The fundamental bond between man and water is the unifying theme in this documentary featuring spectacular photography from around the world. In the USA, farming practices have depleted the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains and artificially changed the landscape in California's Imperial Valley. In China, huge dams are built to harness the power of water for electricity. In India and Bangladesh, mass production of goods requires large amounts of water which is mixed with harsh chemicals and then allowed to run off into rivers where millions are shown bathing in it during a festival. The film is often lyrical in its presentation, with moments of unparalleled beauty. It subtlely deals with political hot button issues such as global warming in a way that allows the images to speak for themselves and the viewer to draw their own conclusion. There is occasional commentary from a photographer who is putting together a new book that really could have been left out entirely. Otherwise, this is an overwhelming, emotional journey on par with similar features from Godfrey Reggio.

The Red Shoes (1948)

General Film Distributors (UK)
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Aspiring ballerina Moira Shearer gets her big break when an influential director of a company hires her for the lead in his new production. His demand for absolute loyalty to her craft leads to her successful debut, but when she falls in love with the young orchestra director they have a falling out. The central ballet is a surrealist fantasy with brilliant colors and set design, however it is bookended by a rather dull melodrama and relationships that lack any real chemistry.

The Leopard (1963)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Luchino Visconti
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Italian aristocrat Burt Lancaster, badly dubbed, reluctantly watches as a revolution transpires to rob him of the power he, and his long family history, have enjoyed. Penniless rebel Alain Delon attains an equitable position of power after the war, not to mention local beauty Claudia Cardinale as his fiance. It turns out Lancaster is financing the dowry of the girl through her father, much to the displeasure of his own daughter who is in love with Delon. This long, lethargic melodrama plays out against a sumptuous backdrop of a palace filled with priceless art and impeccably dressed servants. The plot lines are resolved during a grand banquet and dance that take up nearly the last hour of the film, which while beautiful to look at can be a chore to sit through.

Maidstone (1970)

New Line Cinema
Directed by Norman Mailer
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Mailer basically plays himself this time around, a writer turned director of a movie set in a whorehouse. He casts all of the women in the film personally of course, which provides him with plenty of opportunities to display his rampant misogyny. Once the film starts shooting, it's hardly more than a homemade movie of beautiful girls taking off their clothes and making out with whomever is standing nearby, and Mailer is sure he is always around. There is also some nonsense about his presidential campaign, where once again Mailer is the center of attention. One of the actors, Rip Torn, decides to hit Mailer over the head with a hammer and wrestle on some grass, which draws real blood from both of them. I'm just glad someone had the courage to stand up to him.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

New Line Cinema
Directed by David Lynch
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, CBS/Paramount)

Two federal agents investigating a murder in the rugged Pacific northwest disappear. The FBI sends another agent to investigate. He has premonitions of the next victim: local high school prom queen Laura Palmer. Her life consists of nightly excursions filled with sex and drugs. At home, a stranger waits for her in her bedroom or climbs in through a window and rapes her. At its core, this is an old fashioned mystery, though dressed up in the surreal imagery of director-writer Lynch. Most of the characters are actually suspects, with any number of motivations to murder Laura. The mystery would be stretched out in two complete seasons of the television series to which this is a prequel.

Beyond the Law (1968)

Grove Press
Directed by Norman Mailer
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

City cops meet at a restaurant for blind dates. They tell the girls a series of stories about their lives as policeman. Most of the action takes place in the precinct office, where they harass and intimidate people they have just arrested. Norman Mailer, speaking in a fake Irish brogue, spouts his usual hate wrapped up in clever word play. Why these women hang out with these guys is the real mystery. The full on-screen title, which shows the depth of Mailer's ego, is: Beyond the Law, alias Bust 80, alias Gibraltar, Burke and Pope, alias Copping the Whip, or A Fantasy of the Angels, the Downtrodden and the Dispossessed, otherwise known as The Velvet Hand and the Iron Tongue.

Wild 90 (1968)

Directed by Norman Mailer
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Three gangster-types hide out for weeks in a barren NYC apartment. They spend their time getting drunk, cleaning guns and arguing with each other. Eventually people start coming over to break up the monotony: wives, girlfriends, other gangsters and an aspiring boxer. Essentially a vanity piece for writer, director and star Norman Mailer, who peppers his indecipherable dialogue with grunts and barks. Technically primitive, little more than a bare apartment, a light bulb and a microphone, the sound is particularly bad, but the Criterion release has captions which help immensely in understanding what is being said.

Green for Danger (1946)

General Film Distributors (UK)
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Doctors and nurses at a hospital in a small English village during WWII deal with casualties from the random German bombs that occasionally fall from the sky. A patient dies on the operating table not from his wounds but from a deliberate act of murder. Scotland Yard detective Alastair Sim is called in to solve the crime. His suspects consist of the operating team, 2 men and 3 women, and it is gradually revealed how each had motive and opportunity. While Sim is an absolute delight, the plot does tend to dwell too much on the boring relationships and melodrama that make of the lives of the suspects. The whodunnit relies on preposterous facts that emerge with no warning, such as a twin sister and Nazi sympathizers, and the final reveal of the killer is not particularly satisfying.

Thief (1981)

United Artists
Directed by Michael Mann
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Professional jewel thief James Caan confronts the men who stole his cash after his fence is murdered. He gets the money back, but is also talked into becoming part of their organized ring. His first job is to break into a Chicago bank, which requires lots of welding equipment and power tools. Afterwards, he is not given his promised cut, which sets him off on a vindictive rampage. Michael Mann's theatrical debut is moody and atmospheric, thanks in no small part to the electronic soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, but the gloss tends to be overpowering at times, and Caan's final meltdown just a tad melodramatic.

Judex (1963)

Continental Distributing
Directed by Georges Franju
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

An immoral banker is apparently murdered at a surreal masked ball he hosts at his large estate. It turns out he has many enemies, particularly a housemaid who turned down his marriage proposal but still wants his money. She dons a cat suit and, along with her boyfriend, breaks into his house looking for documents with which to get rich. Finding none, they kidnap his daughter instead with hopes of getting at his fortune. She is rescued by a caped man and his buddies straight out of an old serial, on which this is based. Filled with gadgets, disguises and intricate plot twists, it's a lot of fun, but lacks any real emotional punch.

Thirst for Love (1967)

Nikkatsu
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Etsuko, a widow, lives with the family of her late husband, enduring the nightly affections of her father-in-law while lusting after their young gardener. She becomes consumed with jealousy when the gardener's girlfriend becomes pregnant, eventually driving the couple apart so she can have him to herself. However, the plan backfires leading to unexpected tragedy. Kurahara leaves behind most of the frenetic energy that defined his early New Wave-influenced films for a calmer, more introspective study of loneliness and sexual desire. It almost works, but tends to get bogged down in the family dinner table drama and the occasional overdubbed narration is a distraction.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Twentieth Century Fox
Directed by Wes Anderson
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Quirky story about the life of a fox and his family, inhabiting a world of talking animals, who clashes with local human farmers when he can't resist the urge to raid the chicken coop. The farmers resort to large ammunition to rid themselves of the fox, driving the animals into an underground shelter. The farmers then kidnap his son, leading to a confrontation and rescue. Very modern, very self-conscious and completely disappointing adaptation of the classic children's story by Roald Dahl. This resembles more of an episode of The Simpsons than a movie, a series of vignettes featuring stereotypical characters with mumbled asides and a knowing wink-wink that hey, this is cool and we are funny.

Black Sun (1964)

Nikkatsu
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

A jazz-obsessed Tokyo youth living in a bombed out church crosses paths with a black American GI accused of murder. Held at gun point by a machine gun and unable to communicate, the two wrestle for control of the situation. Both the Japanese and American military police make occasional visits in search of the fugitive. His naive image of American black musicians is soon destroyed by the cruel acts of his hostage taker. However, over time he starts feeling empathy for the man and tries to help him. They are chased across crumbling landscapes littered with trash and pollution. Eventually cornered, they improvise a last minute escape attempt which is completely unexpected. Another bizarre, frenetic film from the much-overlooked Kurahara, with a relentless soundtrack by Max Roach.

I Hate But Love (1962)

Nikkatsu
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

A popular host of a TV show grows bored of his fame, rigid schedule and beautiful manager. Their relationship of two years is strictly Platonic, though they struggle with it and claim to be in love. One day he decides to leave it all behind when he meets a woman who claims to be in "pure love" with a man she has only conversed with for two years through letters. He takes her up on a challenge to drive a jeep across the country to the rural location where her doctor boyfriend lives. His manager/lover follows him, as well as an entourage of cameras filming the whole thing for the TV show. The trip ends with the two couples resolving their differences, but in entirely unanticipated ways. A multi-layered film with interesting symbolism, insightful commentary on fame and the media and the meaning of love in the modern world. Shot mostly on location in the same hand-held style that characterizes Kurahara's other films, a sort of Japanese variation of the Nouvelle Vague.

The Warped Ones (1960)

Nikkatsu
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

A bored trio of friends, two petty thieves and a prostitute, take out their frustrations on the innocent residents of Tokyo. They hang out at the local bar while listening to jazz. They shoplift and steal cars. One day they run into a reporter who earlier had them arrested, so decide to kidnap and rape his girlfriend. She ends up liking the guy and they can't get rid of her. As might be expected, it doesn't end well for anyone. Despite the lurid subject matter, this is an intense, frenzied look at the post-war frustrations of youth in Japan, taking place during a few days of sweltering heat, set to a red hot jazz soundtrack.

Intimidation (1960)

Nikkatsu
Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

A bank executive gets a promotion and is given a going away party by his staff. A stranger shows up and blackmails him with incriminating evidence about illegal loans. He demands an exorbitant amount of cash, gives him a gun and tells him to rob his own bank. He does just that, in disguise, but at the last minute backs out when one of the employees recognizes him. However, the tables are turned when the employee uses the situation for his own advantage, and to exact  some personal revenge. Fast paced and tightly edited with a very satisfactory conclusion.

Blaise Pascal (1972)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

The life of scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal in Renaissance France is told mostly through long scenes heavy on dialogue and short on drama. However, this is a slightly better than the other "history" films of Rossellini. A scene in which a woman is tried for witchcraft could have come straight from a Hammer horror film. Later, Pascal gives a brilliant critique of Descartes directly to his face, the subject of the next film in the series. However, there are also long, boring scenes dealing with his experiments in measuring atmospheric pressure and trying to explain a "vacuum" without offending powerful theologians.

Cartesius (1974)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Rene Descartes spends much of his time in bed reflecting on mathematics, science and metaphysics, ultimately writing a treatise that combines them all, radically altering the course of philosophy. However, his theories about God attract the attention of theologians in Rome, the same ones that banished Galileo for writing similar "heresy". Descartes lays low in the Netherlands with other scientists who think like him, occasionally venturing out to nearby universities for long discourses on his philosophy. Almost completely devoid of any dramatic thrust, Rossellini relies on dialogue for his structure, which, like his other made-for-TV histories, makes for a rather lackluster viewing experience for all but the most diehard Descartes fans, assuming there are any left.

The Age of the Medici (1972)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

My rating: 2 stars out of 4

IMDb

(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

In 15th century Florence, the son of a rich banker clashes with rivals over control of the city's commerce. He is arrested and exiled, but a newly elected council allows him to return a few years later. Loved by the artisans and common people, he allows them to flourish by keeping the city at peace with foreign, and internal, threats. This nearly 4-hour TV mini series lacks any real drama, instead relying on extended conversations about philosophy, architecture, banking, art, etc. for its structure. As a result, it is leadenly paced and can be a real chore to sit through. However, authentic locations, costume design and sets do make for an interesting history lesson.

Peppermint Frappe (1967)

Directed by Carlos Saura
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Hulu)

A middle aged doctor lusts after his young nurse assistant. When he goes to meet his brother for a weekend getaway, he introduces his new wife, a dead ringer for his nurse. The three of them explore a dilapidated country house where the two brothers spent their childhood, while the doctor falls madly in love with the girl. Geraldine Chaplin has a dual role as nurse and wife, one brunette and one blonde, one shy and one outgoing. The film, dedicated to Luis Bunuel, sort of comes off as Bunuel-light, lacking the biting satire that makes Bunuel's films so potent.

Alambrista! (1977)

Directed by Robert Young
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

Roberto decides to cross the border from Mexico to find work and pay to support his wife and newborn child. He befriends others who show him the ropes. They travel by hitchhiking or trains across California, working mainly as laborers picking produce in the fields. A friendly waitress takes him into her home and they have a brief relationship, before he is unexpectedly picked up by immigration and sent back to Mexico. He crosses over again, but this time ends up in Colorado where he finds his father and becomes disillusioned. Factual, almost documentary approach is not as emotionally moving as it should be, but it remains highly topical, even more so in the 40 years or so since its release.