The Florida Project (2017, Sean Baker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 4, 2018
The Florida Project turns out to be a lot about perspective. Director Baker establishes three different perspectives–six-year-old Brooklynn Prince, her mom (Bria Vinaite), and the manager of the motel where they live (William Dafoe). The film takes place over a summer, as Prince makes new friends read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 7: The Menacing Mist
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 3, 2018
The Menacing Mist is endless. It starts with Bela Lugosi trying to kill Robert Kent with his remote control robot, but then he has to deal with some insurrection from lackey Jack C. Smith. Kent’s just doing action, so at least he’s not doing bad acting. Smith, on the other hand, is doing some bad read more
The Gay Falcon (1941, Irving Reis)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 2, 2018
The Gay Falcon answers a question I never thought to ask. Can George Sanders flop a part? The answer is yes. There are extenuating circumstances to be sure, but Sanders flops the lead in Falcon. He’s a skirt-chasing, playboy criminologist, which ought to be a natural fit for Sanders. Instead he com read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 6: The Iron Monster
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 1, 2018
Phantom Creeps hits the halfway point with some intrigue involving one of the cast possibly being a double agent (fingers crossed as it’d give the plot something engaging) and Bela Lugosi getting a new weapon, a kind of ray gun. The ray gun doesn’t get much usage after the demonstration because read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 5: Thundering Rails
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 30, 2018
Thundering Rails is mostly vehicular action. It starts with Robert Kent and Dorothy Arnold trying to land a damaged plane while dropping hand grenades on the foreign spies (being careful not to hurt good guys Regis Toomey and Edwin Stanley). Then there’s a bunch of car chases. The cliffhanger–which read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 4: Invisible Terror
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 29, 2018
I suppose Invisible Terror, which doesn’t feature much invisible terror, is an improvement over the previous chapter. Terror does have Edward Van Sloan in a full flight suit waving a gun around threateningly. Not many opportunities to see such a thing. The story continues to be Feds versus gangster read more
Hoosiers (1986, David Anspaugh)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 28, 2018
Hoosiers rouses. It rouses through a perfectly measured combination of narrative, editing, composition and photography, and music. In that order, least to greatest. There’s no way to discount Jerry Goldsmith’s score and the importance of his music during the basketball game montages. They’d be read more
Through a Glass Darkly (1961, Ingmar Bergman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 27, 2018
At eighty-nine minutes, Through a Glass Darkly never has a chance to get tedious, which is part of the problem. Writer-director Bergman has just introduced the characters, just established the ground situation, when he tries a graceful segue into the characters and their relationships being familia read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 3: Crashing Towers
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 26, 2018
If Crashing Towers is any indication, the only thing keep The Phantom Creeps creeping along is top-billed Bela Lugosi. He’s not in the chapter much–more often than not he’s invisible–and, wow, are things rough without him. In addition to the predictable bad acting from Robert Kent and Dorothy read more
Street Smart (1987, Jerry Schatzberg)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 25, 2018
Somewhere around the halfway point in Street Smart, when both female “leads” get reduced to a combination punching bag–figuratively and literally–and damsel, the movie starts to collapse. It doesn’t collapse in a standard way. It doesn’t give too much to either of its dueling stars, Christopher read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 2: Death Stalks the Highways
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 24, 2018
Despite a stupefying cliffhanger resolution–disasters happen, people just don’t get hurt–Death Stalks the Highways turns out not too bad. Comparatively. Take Bela Lugosi for instance. He tries real hard with some of his acting. It’s not good, but he’s trying. The trying gets him ahead of Robert read more
The Phantom Creeps (1939, Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind), Chapter 1: The Menacing Power
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 23, 2018
The Menacing Power does all right setting up the hook of The Phantom Creeps–Bela Lugosi is a mad scientist with various technological inventions he’s going to use for nefarious purposes–and even manages to gracefully segue between the expository setup and the chapter’s cliffhanger. So far Lugosi’s read more
The Great Monster Varan (1958, Honda Ishirô)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 22, 2018
The only thing more tedious and lethargic than the first half of Varan is the second half of Varan. The first half has a motley crew of lepidopterologists awakening a giant monster. The second half has these lepidopterologists consulting with the military to destroy said monster. Not sure why the m read more
Batman and Robin (1949, Spencer Gordon Bennet)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 21, 2018
Batman and Robin is fifteen chapters; all together, it’s just under four and a half hours. It is not a rewarding four and a half hours. Not at all. Of the fourteen credited actors, one gives a good performance. Don C. Harvey. He gets to be chief henchman for a while. But not even half of the serial read more
The Station Agent (2003, Tom McCarthy)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 20, 2018
The Station Agent is not a character study. It does try, at almost exactly the one hour mark (it runs a breezy, but deliberate eighty-nine minutes), to become a character study, but it is not a character study. It is actually a perfect example of how to not make a character study. Writer-director M read more
Batman and Robin (1949, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 15: Batman Victorious
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 19, 2018
For a few minutes in Batman Victorious, which is mostly a chase sequence–the invisible (though only temporarily) Wizard is on the run from Batman and the cops. There are some questionable (but more ambitious than anything else in the serial) invisible man special effects and a more lively feel to read more
The Sin of Nora Moran (1933, Phil Goldstone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 18, 2018
It’s hard to have worse written characters than dialogue. Like, how can character motivation be worse than what the characters speak to show their motivation. The Sin of Nora Moran shows what it’s like to have worse characterizations than dialogue. It’s not pretty. What’s sort of frustrating read more
Batman and Robin (1949, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 14: Batman vs. Wizard!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 17, 2018
Okay, I’m not wrong–wheelchair-bound, ornery scientist William Fawcett really does just walk around in front of everyone and no one reacts. He’s been zapping himself with electricity to regain use of his legs, making him a suspect for being masked, supercriminal the Wizard. Except only to the read more
Batman and Robin (1949, Spencer Gordon Bennet), Chapter 13: The Wizard’s Challenge!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 16, 2018
If the Wizard has any challenge in The Wizard’s Challenge!, it’s outsmarting Batman and Robin. It doesn’t take much as it turns out. Especially not with Robin (Johnny Duncan) playing with a toy truck when he’s supposed to be on guard duty. See, the Wizard has stolen all the scientific equipment read more
The Moon Is Blue (1953, Otto Preminger)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 15, 2018
William Holden never seems out of place in The Moon Is Blue, but occasionally the film seems out of place having William Holden in its lead role. He’s not mundane, he’s a star. The film isn’t about the mundane but it needs to acknowledge the possibility of it. Holden ain’t it. He’s top-billed read more