Change Your Image
johnmarklody
Reviews
The Sound and the Fury (2014)
Faithful adaptation
This film admirably presents all 3 parts of the original novel by Faulkner. It's the only film I know of that does, in fact. Very well done and highly recommended for all true Faulkner fans. Franco does a great job with his Benji, and O'Reily is also captivating and convincing as the beloved Caddy. The Jason and Quentins also were very convincing in their roles. Deserves better than a "4.3". Modern audiences have little affinity for a version that is faithful in portraying true human experience.
Dark Light (2019)
Headlight people!
This is the dumbest premise and one of the worst horror films I have ever seen! The production value is good, but how any sane producers ever green lighted this awful excuse for a film is beyond my understanding.
It's about some apparent folk legend in the south about a race of undetectable fiends who have evolved alongside humanity. How they stay hidden for long generations with headlights for faces, which they always shine really brightly when they're hanging around your property, is the real mystery! They also continually whine like pigs and drool all over the place, but never leave a trace anywhere they've been.
They apparently feed on the life forces of humans, and can rip a person to shreds and drain all the life from them in a few seconds. But in the case of the protagonist's daughter, they take a really long time and keep her pretty and safe for days or weeks, ready to rescue when the big scene comes.
These fiends live and move all around in the protagonist's home without detection for the most part; even though they are big, hulking, slow-moving, ugly brutes. They get in to the house through a trap door in the floor of the household elevator that leads to a network of underground tunnels, and it even has a little convenient handle built in for them to use, but apparently nobody realizes what it's for.
Although it supposedly takes place in Mississippi, only one character has a southern accent. Everyone else sounds like they're from California.
Really bad, even for morons!
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Lavishly filmed and admirably acted.
I was greatly surprised by the impressive scope of this film. It really is a very good rendering of Jane Austen's novel-with zombies! Wonderful cast and marvelously acted. It will always remain one of the most memorable versions I've seen.
The Cured (2017)
Just doesn't equate!
First, the premise of this film is overly contrived to make the situation more emotionally charged than it needs to be. Why do the cured remember their violent actions? Many people who suffer from mental illness do not remember what they do during their violent episodes. Many people who commit violence under the influence of a controlled substance do not remember either.
But the biggest problem with this film is that it tries to equate societal reactions to the cured with similar reactions to substance abuse and perhaps mental illness. But these situations do not equate at all with the plight of the cured in this film. Negative societal responses to substance abuse and mental illness carry a moral dimension that an obviously, instantly contagious disease like the one portrayed in this film would not carry. Forcing the actors in this film to behave as if there would be the same moral onus as with those other, real-life social situations just shows a basic lack of realistic perception about human nature and our innate moral compasses.
The creators of this film have already passed judgment on the way normal people view those who formerly committed crimes under the influence of controlled substances or mental illness. But the fatal flaw here is that those people really are at least partially responsible for their former actions, while the cured obviously are not. Their plight was not caused by wrong moral choices, and there is no possibility that their actions were not entirely due to their illness, which is by no means the case with the real-life issues that this film attempts to equate them with.
Of course, if you are one of those social liberals who has already judged people who still retain some moral sense in relation to human behavior, you will see this film as a making a laudably creative and profound social statement.
But you will also be blinded by your self-delusions about your own moral superiority toward those whom you see as grasping onto an antiquated set of moral values.
The huge problem is that those moral values are not in the least antiquated. They are innate, divinely authored, and immutable for eternity. And one day you will still be held accountable for all of them, despite all your progressive sophistication. For their remains One who is unimpressed with it, and He is the Judge of the universe!
Gutland (2017)
A nightmare for existentialists. The way the world should be
Gutland is billed as horror/suspense, but only if you're a postmodern existentialist. To me it is a story of redemption and the triumph of justice over evil. Wholesome values over egocentric self absorption. Jens is accepted into the rural culture at first, then he's on trial until he proves himself willing to reform and become worthy of the community trust. Finally, the rural community intervenes to save him and his new family from his criminal past, and he is elevated to respected status in the community. It is a good-land, indeed!
Existentialists beware! You may find your authentic existence stolen by true justice and traditional values! Horror of horrors!
Queen of the Desert (2015)
Larry of Arabia without the excitement
Long, subdued, and intensely boring. Gertrude Bell's life must have been more interesting than this film; otherwise she would have died of boredom at a very young age. Beautifully filmed and well acted, but it's over 2 hours long and very little happens besides Bell riding dromedaries hither and yon, talking with this guy and the other. For some odd reason, none of the foreign language conversations are subtitled, so you spend extended times having no idea what anyone is talking about! Every man she falls in love with kills himself. Maybe it was boredom.
Heaven's Gate (1980)
Inordinately long, confused chaos
I think the real failing of Heaven's Gate is in the editing. This story could have been told adequately in less than half the film's running time of over 3.5 hours. Too many intimate moments could have been cut between the main characters to make the historic narrative more linear. But Cimino seemed so insistent on having his cake and eat it too. He wants it to be a love triangle, an experience of frontier immigrant life, and a historical battle movie. Just too much baggage for one film. The result is basically a lavishly filmed boring mess.