Black Mass (2015)

  Content warning:  gang violence

FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) returns to his hometown of Boston determined to put an end to the Italian mob.  He leans on his childhood friend, Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp) as an informant, recognizing that Bulger is an up-and-coming gangster.  Over nearly twenty years, Connolly knowingly protected Bulger as his Winter Hill Gang grew to rival the mob he helped put away.

This is based on a true story, but unlike Goodfellas or other gangster stories based on true crime, this isn't remotely entertaining.  It's very straight-forward; you know immediately who the bad guys are (hint: it's all of them), and nothing about their lifestyle is glamorized.  But that's pretty much it.  There's no sympathy, but also no humor, no charisma, and no style.  Even the cinematography is washed out blues and grays.  

And somehow everyone in this is famous.  It is almost like the entire cast is just a series of cameos.  Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, David Harbour, Adam Scott, Jesse Plemmons, Juno Temple, Dakota Johnson, Corey Stoll, Peter Sarsgaard, Rory Cochrane, and W. Earl Brown are all in this.  Wild that a movie with this much talent can't manage to let a single performer shine.  What a waste.

I have no idea where you can watch this if you wanted to.  I got a digital copy a long time ago from my cousin, Christy, and I'm just now making my way around to it.  Probably not going to keep this one but I'll give it one more watch to be completely sure.

Stella (1955)

Nightclub singer Stella (Melina Mercouri) loves her life.  She resists any attempt to tie her down, no matter if it's from a nice society boy (Alekos Alexandrakis) or a hotshot soccer player (Giorgios Fountas). But when tragedy strikes, will she bend with the pressure and compromise her feelings?

This is the Greek version of Carmen and I don't hate it but I liked Never on Sunday more.  This was her debut film, so that's probably not a fair comparison just because I saw this one second, but what are you going to do?  She's basically playing the same character in both, just one has a happier ending than the other.  

The only place I could find this was on the Internet Archive, which is a shame.  It should probably be celebrated more as a piece of Greek film history.  

The Villainess (2017)

  Content warning:  blood, implied sexual assault of a child, child death

Sook-hee (Min Yi-Ji) takes out an entire building of gangsters before being captured by the police.  A Korean intelligence agency recruits her, changes her face, and gives her a new identity as an actress named Chae Yeon-soo (Kim Ok-vin).  As Yeon-soo, she gets an apartment with her daughter (Kim Yeon-woo) and waits for the phone to ring with an assassination assignment.  Until then, she begins a romance with her neighbor, Jung Hyun-soo (Sung Joon), without knowing that he is also with the Agency and assigned to keep tabs on her.

There are several sub-plots and flashbacks that are needlessly complicated, but that's the gist of the story.  

This movie owes everything it is to La Femme Nikita but manages to not be another knock-off.  Mostly that is due to the action choreography and stunt work, which are incredible despite the camera swinging wildly around and switching from 1st- to 3rd-person POVs mid-fight.  It's not even shaky-cam; it's more like swoopy-cam.  If you get motion sickness, you may want to take something before you watch this.  

I am a big fan of ladies kicking ass and this could have been an all-timer but the camera work borderline ruined it for me.  I still liked it, but I could have loved it.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

 Content warning: executions (gun), discussion of rape

Josef Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) rules the Soviet Union with an iron fist.  But when he dies, his Cabinet ministers scramble to consolidate their personal power.  Nikita Khruschev (Steve Buscemi), a reformer, tries to gain support against Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale), Stalin's spymaster and head of the NKVD Security Forces.

Some of the dialogue is funny but a lot of it is just rape jokes which is super gross.  The cast list is incredible and includes top-tier British talent, along with Buscemi and Jeffrey Tambor.  Don't get hung up on the accents.  

If you're a fan of In the Loop or The Thick of It, you'll probably like this.  It's by the same writer and director, Armando Iannucci.  It's not my brand of humor but a lot of people seem to really like it.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

  Content warning: suicide (disembowelment), mild blood 

Celebrated author Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata) and four acolytes prepare to make an extreme political statement, interspersed with dramatizations of several of Mishima's novels, and flashbacks to his youth.

Man, I hate that I hated this biopic so much.  It's so pretty.  The art direction in the novel dramatizations is immaculate.  Also this was the debut of Eiko Ishioka, one of the greatest costumers to ever live. 

It is unfortunately ruined by the main character who whines about art and beauty and purity which are all just synonyms for youth.  If you've been in or around the gay community in the 90s - 00s, you've met at least 10 dudes just like this.  But none of them have probably tried to hold a military leader hostage.  Seriously, the main character here is so far up his own ass he could rent himself to Sesame Street as the letter O.

I have no idea how similar this is to the actual person it's based on and I'm afraid to look.  Fortunately, you really have to go out of your way to find this so you're not going to stumble across it accidentally.  Visually, it is stunning so if you must, I understand.  But watch it on mute.

Passport to Pimlico (1949)

  Happy All Souls Day!

A handful of children accidentally explode a piece of German ordinance and uncover a treasure trove of the Duke of Burgundy, which includes a document stating that their street is actually not part of England.  The local shopkeeper, Mr. Pemberton (Stanley Holloway), hires an expert (Dame Margaret Rutherford) to authenticate and declare that since the decree had never been rescinded, their neighborhood in London is rightfully the Duchy of Burgundy and thus, no longer subject to His Majesty's rules.  The citizens initially celebrate the end of post-war rationing, but soon find self-governance tricky.  There's borders and customs, currency issues, and national defense to think of, and that's before some French guy (Paul Dupuis) shows up, claiming to be the descendent of the last Duke.  

This is a very cute Ealing comedy that perfectly captures the British wartime spirit.  The characters feel like slight exaggerations of real people, not quite archetypes, but familiar enough to be instantly recognizable.  It's still very much a product of its time so the dialogue is a little antiquated, but well worth seeking out.  And you don't have to look very far, either.  It's streaming for free on Tubi.

Oops! All Horror - Day 31 - Lake Mungo (2008)

 Happy Halloween, everyone!  We're finishing strong with a stunner of a film.   Content:  drowned corpse

An Australian family is devastated when 16-year-old Alice (Talia Zucker) drowns during a family vacation.  Soon after, the family begin experiencing disturbances around the house, leading them to seek out a local psychic and radio personality (Steve Jodrell).  

Okay, I am late to the party on this one, which is very well-regarded in horror circles.  I was initially hesitant because of the words "found footage" but this is not shaky-cam.  This is a spectacularly done documentary-style film that's a little like Presence mixed with Ghostwatch.  It is so well-executed I can see someone believing that it's a real episode of a haunting show.  The performances felt really natural, all the "twists" were exactly like the ones you'd see in a documentary, and it has just enough verité to make you wonder.  I am going to get a little spoiler-y so as always, highlight the text to read it.  **SPOILERS FOLLOW**  One of my complaints about Presence was the "time is a flat circle" nature of the haunting which reads as predestination and inability to escape fate.  I don't love that.  Lake Mungo neatly sidesteps all that by making Alice see her fetch, a death omen from Celtic folklore.  Maybe that's the same effect for you, but for me, adding a slightly supernatural element made it seem less philosophical and therefore less depressingly nihilistic.  **END SPOILERS**  

Lake Mungo is streaming on AMC+, Shudder, and Amazon Prime.