Shameless Self Expression

Surly Jimmy Stewart and his pal Walter Brennan are driving a herd of cattle to Dawson City, Yukon. In the town of Skagway, Alaska Stewart gets on the wrong side of bully-boy lawman Judge Gannon (John McIntire), the crooked self-appointed boss of the town. At some point, Stewart and Brennan get gold fever, whilst Stewart also has two women vying for his affections; one good (Corinne Calvet), one ‘bad’ (Ruth Roman). Jay C. Flippen plays the token drunk, who becomes a good friend/ally to Stewart and Brennan.   All of the westerns James Stewart made with director Anthony Mann (whose non-western films include “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and his best film “El Cid” ) are worthwhile, even if none of them are great so much as consistently good ( “The Naked Spur” is probably the best of them) . This 1954 one scripted by Borden Chase ( “Winchester ‘73” , “Bend of the River” ) is certainly no masterpiece, but it’s a damn solid piece of western entertainment. I’ve always preferred guy...

Elderly scientist/hypnotist Boris Karloff and his beloved wife/accomplice Catherine Lacey have invented a hypnosis-and-telepathy device that is able to work on victims from a long distance. It allows the couple to live out their wildest fantasies vicariously through their subjects in a manner that they couldn’t in their own elderly state. In addition to getting their victims/subjects to do whatever they command, they can also feel the same sensations that their victim/subject does. Somewhat bored ladies’ man Ian Ogilvy is their latest hapless victim/subject. However, after a bit of fun and games, Lacey is unsatiated and starts to engage Ogilvy in more violent and criminal activities. Victor Henry plays Ogilvy’s drinking buddy, a young Susan George is an ex-girlfriend and hooker, and Elizabeth Ercy is Ogilvy’s current squeeze.   Boris Karloff made quite a few films in the late 60s and early 70s before his death, and this 1967 oddity from director Michael Reeves (the terrific Vin...

Ryan Reynolds is Guy, a citizen of Free City who has a boring bank teller job and a desire to be one of the ‘Sunglasses People’ who drive fancy cars and get to be the ‘good guy’, i.e. a hero. They also get the girl, with Guy finding himself drawn to the English-accented beauty ‘Molotovgirl’. Every day has been the same for Guy, except this one day he picks up sunglasses belonging to a bank robber and putting them on it makes him view his world in a completely different way. A crush will make you do crazy things, I guess. Meanwhile, in another kind of world we meet game developers Keys (Joe Keery) and his crush/co-worker Millie (Jodie Comer) who work for greedy game mogul Antoine (Taika Waititi), who stole their A.I. technology for use in the ‘Free City’ game. Yep, Guy and his fellow ‘Free City’ citizens are video game avatars, NPCs actually (Non-playable characters) for the most part in this “Grand Theft Auto” meets “The Sims” -style game world.   Although reviews cite “The Tr...

In 1945 Berlin, with bombs dropping everywhere, a woman gives birth to a demon child who is killed by Nazi Baron von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais). You see, the Baron’s family is under a curse whereby any daughter born is cursed to become a succubus, a seductress in the service of Satan (Daniel Emilfork). About 15 years later the story picks up with a group of stranded bus travellers having to take refuge at the von Rhoneberg castle. Jacques Monseau plays a prideful priest, Shirley Corrigan a sleepy blonde, Ivana Novak a lustful tart, Colette Emmanuelle and Lorenzo Terzon are a married couple, Christian Maillet is the gluttonous bus driver, and Frenchman Lucien Raimbourg is a crotchety old cranky pants. Soon after their arrival, another guest turns up; Slinky, sexy, navel-baring Erika Blanc. She’s a succubus set to prey upon each of the travellers who all indulge in one of the seven deadly sins.   This 1971 Italian-Belgian cult flick from Belgian director Jean Brismee (the last of s...

Timothee Chalamet is the pretentious Gatsby who is in NYC with girlfriend and fellow Uni student Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), ostensibly for a nice time. However, aspiring journalist Ashleigh manages to secure an interview with secretive, morose filmmaker Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber), so she has to ditch their planned site-seeing. Soon she’s also bewitched a screenwriter (Jude Law) and a big heartthrob (Diego Luna) as well. Gatsby meanwhile, encounters the sister (Selena Gomez) of a former girlfriend, and hires a hooker (Kelly Rohrbach) to accompany him to a party hosted by his intimidating mother (Cherry Jones), which turns out to be a very revealing evening. Ben Warheit plays a pretentious arty alum of Gatsby, whilst Rebecca Hall turns up briefly as Law’s wife.   If you’re reading this review you’re either related to me or are willing to some degree to separate art from artist in regards to Woody Allen. It’s hard to do that with Woody when his films are so personal, and his le...