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michaelwill-1
Reviews
Vegas (2012)
Nobody smokes in Las Vegas in 1960
What a triumph of period detail. Of course none of these characters, local rednecks and arriving mob thugs from the east, would be lighting up, halfway through a butt, or looking for a place to put one out, fifty years ago when the majority of the adult population smoked. And that casino, where nobody gestures with a lighted cig as she or he talks, was as clear aired as a mountaintop. Such realism.
Lovely cars throughout, but a good many were from 1962 and 1963.
Who in the hell was the killer? I saw someone behind the wheel of that blue Cadillac, after Sheriff Quaid faced him down in some strange arrangement of confrontation, but damned if I could make out who it was. There was some revelation a scene earlier, but I wasn't fast enough to catch it. I'm embarrassed to say I'd somehow lost track as the mystery was cunningly laid out.
Who is that Carrie Ann Moss character, looks like a future love interest? One minute the cold establishment enemy and the next laughing with knowing, flirtatious respect. Mob Boss Michael Chiklis has no personality beyond being threatening, or at other times toughly sympathetic. The sheriff's youngest son looks like a wild loose cannon, irresponsible but there when he's needed. Everyone else seems to be holding off till next week or ones beyond, when we learn the cliché they fill.
What a friggin' BOMB! Stupid, phony and inept. Exactly which makers of "Goodfellas" etc. were behind this new dimension of television crime entertainment? It is a gangster show that has no swearing, and no violence beyond what you might've seen in "Murder, She Wrote."
The Enchanted (1984)
Val Lewton in the Florida backwoods
Thank god this stunning fantasy is finally listed on the IMDb. I've been telling people about it for decades, without being able to prove it even exists! It had a couple network showings on ABC back in the late 80s and after that, vanished. Now, I only hope that someone like Anchor Bay of Janus discovers it and gets a DVD release out there for people to discover.
Straight forward but intricate plot: a young rancher in the backwoods of northern Florida falls in love with a gentle mysterious woman who appears from nowhere. The rancher's best friend, an elderly woodsman attuned to the lore of the forest, warns him that something is very wrong, as his passion for this ethereal and elusive woman draws him into an increasingly mysterious series of events. The eerie finale brings both wonderment and a full gasping sense of the dread that's been growing, in this dark landscape, both natural and supernatural, that no other filmmaker has ever explored.
Director Carter Lord is sparing with dialogue, telling much of his story with visuals, and a truly hypnotic sense of atmosphere. Rarely has a local indy filmmaker made better use of his surroundings, in building unease -- a perfect awareness of how his local countryside might appear to a stranger in those parts, lost and frightened and uncertain, and that's exactly the mood "The Enchanted" captures and sustains. When there's a sudden cut, to a hooting owl in the darkness, then a far off window lit up, it doesn't feel arty -- it feels like, "This is a scary place, and what am I doing outside?" This movie is the closest I've ever seen to what could be called "latterday Val Lewton", something completely in the spirit, and artistic precision, of that long ago series of quiet horror movies for thinking people, like "Cat People", "I Walked With a Zombie" and "The Body Snatcher". Those films, from producer Lewton, weren't appreciated at the time of their early 1940s releases, but have since become landmark horror classics.
Please, some distributor, hunt down and discover "The Enchanted", and get it out there. If I'm half as film literate as I imagine myself to be, I couldn't recommend a neglected gem more highly than this one.