Daughters of the Dust (1991)

  Content warning:  reference to sexual assault, reference to mass suicide

In 1902, two cousins from very different lives return to their home, a small island off the coast of Georgia founded by freed slaves.  Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) has brought a photographer (Tommy Hicks) with her to document the departure of the majority of the remaining family to the modern North.  "Yellow" Mary (Barbara-O) has brought her lover, Trula (Trula Hoosier).  The family matriarch, Nana (Cora Lee Day), fears that the old ways will be lost once they lose the connection to the land of their birth.  

It's a multi-generational, multi-character story told in the Gullah dialect of the Atlantic islands of the southern U.S.  The cinematography is lush and dream-like, aided by new-agey/world music synth scoring.  The costumes and details are fantastic.  The plot can be a little hard to follow if you're not really paying attention to who is who, so stay off your phone during this one.

Written and directed by Julie Dash, this is the first feature directed by an African-American woman to receive a theatrical screening in the U.S.  In 1991.  So, I was in 3rd grade before we got a movie by a Black woman on a movie screen.  Cool cool.  Anyway, this is streaming on the Criterion Channel, as it should.

Highest 2 Lowest (2026)

  Spike Lee reimagines Akira Kurosawa's High and Low.  

Record executive David King (Denzel Washington) is on the verge of a risky business proposition to buy back controlling interest in the music company he founded when he receives a call from a kidnapper saying his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been taken.  The kidnapper demands $17.5 million as a ransom, which will wipe out all of King's assets, but it's a small price to get his son back alive and unharmed.  Then Trey walks through the door.  The kidnapper had accidentally grabbed Trey's best friend, Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of the King family chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright).  Suddenly, King finds himself in a moral quandary.  He was willing to risk the family fortune for his son, but would he risk his family's future for a friend's?

It feels almost sacrilegious to say, but Spike Lee actually improves upon the original in that I stayed interested in this film all the way through.  Kurosawa's version relied so heavily on the internal tension that it almost forgot to have any external.  Lee's version is more balanced.  

My only other takeaway was Man, he really loves New York City.  Not a new thought but one that was reinforced over and over.

It's streaming on AppleTV.

Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)

  Content warning:  blood, gore, worms/maggots

Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) barely survived his encounter with Jason Voorhees (C.J. Graham) but managed to finally kill him.  That's not enough reassurance, however, so Tommy and his friend Hawes (Ron Palillo) dig up the killer's grave with the intention of burning the body.  Unfortunately, they accidentally turn Jason into an undead revenant --oopsies-- and set him loose on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Camp Forest Green née Crystal Lake.  

God, I love dumb, hilarious horror movies.  Full disclosure, I watched this out of order.  I've only seen the original Friday the 13th, but I didn't want to get left out of Movie Club so I skipped 2-5.  It's not a big continuity problem but I will probably go back and watch the ones in between at some point because I'm a completionist.

This isn't just so-bad-it's-funny, although there are plenty of cheesy moments.  It's actual meta-humor.  There's a fourth-wall break, two camp kids that are pre-pubescent Statler and Waldorf, and at least one character that explicitly mentions being in a horror movie.  It's really fun and requires zero brain power. The entire franchise is streaming on Paramount+.

The Elephant Man (1980)

  Content warning:  medical specimens, severe deformity, severe bullying, abuse

Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers a severely deformed man named John Merrick (John Hurt) being exhibited in a carnival freak show and bribes the showman, Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones), to bring Merrick to the London Hospital for an examination.  Treves is later called back to the carnival because Bytes has beaten Merrick severely and then panicked that he might have killed his meal ticket.  Treves takes Merrick and installs him in the hospital but soon has to present a reason to his boss, Mr. Carr Gomm (John Gielgud), as to why Merrick can't be transferred somewhere else.  Treves believes Merrick is developmentally disabled as well as physically, but soon learns that Merrick is not only articulate, he is kind and artistic.  He's just been traumatized and abused for most of his life.  Treves immediately seeks to provide Merrick as normal a life as he can have.

There are really sweet moments in this but there are also a lot of horrifyingly bleak ones, too.  It really shows the range of human responses.  I'm a fan of David Lynch - person, but not so much a fan of David Lynch - director.  This movie showcases the deep humanity and compassion of David Lynch - person that I find lacking in the other films of his that I've seen.  Also I am a huge fan of sideshow freaks (complimentary).  The real Joseph (not John) Merrick willingly joined the carnival, rightfully concluding it was the only way for him to be able to earn a living.

This is a fascinating movie for a host of reasons.  It was produced by Mel Brooks who took his name off the film because he didn't want people to assume it was a comedy.  It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and is the reason we have a category for Best Makeup.  The cinematography is gorgeous and well-lit (!) despite being in black-and-white.  I was struck by the discordant sound design and I usually don't notice something like that in a film.  

It will not be for everyone.  There are points where it is a very hard watch, especially if you are sensitive to that sort of thing.  On a scale from 1 to Sarah MacLachlan dog commercial, this is probably an 8.  But it's also a great jumping off point to decide if David Lynch is for you.  It's streaming on the Criterion Channel.

I Know Where I'm Going (1945)

  Content warning:  dead animal (rabbit)

Joan (Wendy Hiller) has always known what she's wanted from life and gone after it with single-minded focus.  So when she decides to wed wealthy industrialist Sir Robert Bellinger (Norman Shelley), nothing is going to stand in her way.  Sir Robert has rented the island of Kiloran, the whole thing, in the Hebrides to the north of Scotland for their nuptials and Joan takes the English equivalent of planes, trains, and automobiles --in this case, train, ferry, and rowboat-- but finds herself stymied on the Isle of Mull due to weather, which stubbornly refuses to bend to her will.  Also trying to get to Kiloran is a Royal Navy officer, Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey).  The more Joan runs into Torquil, the less sure she is and the more her priorities shift, the more determined she is to correct them by getting back on track to her stated goals.  

This is another 40s rom-com and while I liked the story and the particular tropes (forced proximity, pride-and-prejudice, titled-but-poor) I didn't think Hiller and Livesey had any real chemistry together so their mutual declaration felt like a shock to them but also to me.  Also, the "curse" reveal ended up as kind of a shitty pun on the back of a legitimately horrifying backstory and that tonal whiplash was too much for me.  But if you're looking for a light, breezy Powell & Pressburger film shot on location, this one is lesser-known and available currently on the Criterion Channel.

His Girl Friday (1940)

  Content warning: racial slurs, attempted suicide

Walter Burns (Cary Grant) knows he has to do something big when his ex-wife and star reporter, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell), storms into his office to announce that she's marrying a nice insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy) and moving to Albany.  He convinces her to get a final interview for a man on death row scheduled to be hanged in the morning.  The Post has been running features and trying to pressure the governor into a reprieve in order to sway the upcoming election against the incumbent sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and mayor (Clarence Kolb).  Hildy knows it's a scam to get her to stay and reconcile with Walter but the story is too god to pass up. 

This is considered a screwball comedy because of how fast the dialogue is and how many sudden turns the story takes.  However, it is a little more mean-spirited than, say, Bringing Up Baby.  It is intensely cynical about the lengths reporters will go for a story, more like the comedy version of Ace in the Hole.  It is based on a play that was in turn based on a story written by two reporters and already had a film adaptation in 1931 under its original name, The Front Page.  For this version, the character of Hildy was gender-swapped and made into Walter's ex-wife, giving us one of the definitive performances of Rosalind Russell's career.  

By modern standards, these people are toxic, self-centered, and amoral.  But if you go in knowing that, this is still an incredibly funny movie.  It is blisteringly fast with jokes layered on jokes.  And not just from the main characters.  Nearly everyone (except Bellamy and Helen Mack, as the straight man and the emotional appeal, respectively) has unending quippy lines.  It is a classic comedy even if it stumbles as a romance.  It's streaming on the Criterion Channel and basically everywhere else because it's in the public domain.  It's even embedded in the Wikipedia page.

Lust in the Dust (1985)

  Content warning:  sexual assault (played as a joke)

Rosie (Divine) is just trying to get to the town of Chile Verde when she meets a handsome, silent stranger (Tab Hunter) headed the same way.  The stranger attracts a lot of attention, especially from Chile Verde's saloon mistress, Margarita (Lainie Kazan).  The town is known for a riddle involving a Scotsman's buried gold and everyone is out to get rich.

I was really hoping this was going to be hilarious but it is kind of awful.  This was one of the very few movies Divine ever made without John Waters and while he does everything he can to save it, there's just no escaping how bad it is.  I've seen porn parodies with better scripts.  It's not sexy or funny or even outrageous enough to be interesting.  You'll recognize almost every character actor in it which may tempt you, but I am here to warn you.  Stay away.  Let this molder on the trash heap of history where it belongs.  It's streaming on Tubi for free and still too high a cost.