Category: Uncategorized

Review: Obsession (1976)

Saved to blog because tlet twitter threads are getting out of hand let’s face it.

Obsession 1976. A super visually competent thriller starring Cliff Robertson aka Uncle Ben and John Lithgow aka GOAT. Brian De Palma basically iterating on the Hitchcock creations Vertigo and Rebecca with a louder bang. Impressively fluid camera and distinctively wide compositions, like Spielberg, using foreground and background as devices for staging or in other words visual contrast, rather than the modern convention of cutting or pulling focus. There’s more to say on this, with visual refs but BFIplayer doesn’t let you take crudding screenshots. Thought there wasn’t much complexity to the story, or convincing detail outside the squashed cockpit the plot puts you in. (By which I mean, I didn’t get a palpable sense of the world e.g. Italy emblematic of this was the end of the film, which avoided a lot of very sticky questions)

The lady vanishes vibes at the beginning, which I must say was brilliantly designed, and mostly delivered on the huge potential to bring back motifs e.g. rotating.

But saying that, I look like a fool when I say I didn’t see that twist coming, and to pull off de-aging someone like that without VFX and not look silly was very impressive.

The final sequence was also pretty stunningly choreographed on all fronts, especially the red paint and the strip lighting. But I thought there were missed opportunities to create more interesting scenarios with John Lithgow, it’d have given both characters more to chew on.

There’s something nostalgic, or at least earnest about films like this which really appeals to me. Visually it actually reminded me of Suspiria which came out the year after in 1977, that also has a really fun attitude to genre, and fondness for psycho-drama/”high melodrama” that’s basically woven into its fabric.

Plenty of great ideas, but the gamut of themes and tones is too wide. Misses the more disturbing aspects of Hitchcock, more external than internal.

Strong 6/10

Film Review: Metropolis

Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Metropolis

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In central Metropolis born and raised
In the Metropolis was where I spent most of my days
Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool
With all the prostitutes my dad bought me by the pool

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When a gaggle of serfs who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my Metropolis
I joined one class struggle and my dad got scared
He said, “You’re movin’ into the underworld of Metropolis“

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I begged and pleaded with him day after day
But he wouldn’t acknowledge class injustices and sent me away
He gave me a kiss and then he gave me my ticket.
I put my Walkman on and said, “I might as well kick it.”

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Working class, yo, this is bad
Drinking sewage water out of a shoe sucks ass
Is this what the workers of Metropolis living like?
Hmm, this probably violates my human rights.

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But up above they’re prissy, bourgeois, all that
Is the underworld the type of place that they just send this cool cat?
I don’t think so
I’ll see when I get there
I hope they’re prepared for the prince of Metropolis

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Well, the lift just arrived and when I came out
There was a dude who looked like a Thin Man there with my name out
I ain’t trying to get arrested yet
I just got here
I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared

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I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said “Apocalypse” and it had Karl Marx on the mirror
If anything I could say that this cab was the bombest
But I thought, “Nah, forget it.”
– “Yo, home to Metropolis.”

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I pulled up to the tower about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie, “Yo inventor who transmuted the image of my true love onto a automaton, indistinguishable from any human, with the characteristics of all seven deadly sins… smell ya later!”
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Metropolis

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*Poem by Jazzy Jeff may not represent the themes and/or plot of Metropolis with 100% accuracy

It’s obvious why people rate it among the all-time classics because of it’s visual invention, lighting, staging and extremely impressive visual effects by Eugen Schüfftan.

Fritz Lang didn’t give a rat’s behind about the welfare of his actors, or the huge number of extras needed to make this film, but the performances and visual spectacle we receive as a result is mind boggling.

Brigitte Helm was only 19 at the time and gives an brilliant and compelling performance as both the saint of the working class, Maria, and the evil robot spawned from the imagination of inventor, Rotwang (essentially a less friendly Doc from Back to the Future). The way she emotes and contorts her body for each role works perfectly for the silent medium. I generally love the casting for the film, like Citizen Kane, Lang cast mostly unknown actors, the only lead I thought could have been recast was Alfred Abel as President Joh Frederson. Though he may have been underwritten, the performance didn’t convince me that he was either evil or loving.

There are a few plot holes here and there, but I only noticed them after reviewing so I won’t spoil anything. I also thought the finale was was over long and petered out by the end. That’s because the film ducks away from offering any real solutions to class inequity, it only sets up an environment for change, which might be why the film has fans across the political spectrum.

Probably the only thing me, a soy boy™ leftist, and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propogandist have in common is that we like this film.

A factor of the film which probably led to this unlikely conjunction was how Lang filmed the working class as a non-specific mass of movement and singular mind. I’m sure this would have appealed to the Nazi’s intentions to split/categorize groups of people, and compete with recently released films like Battleship Potemkin. BUT I might be wrong here I encourage anybody reading to research this.

I highly recommend this one, for people who haven’t seen it yet, the 2.5 hour run time goes by easily, you also have the option to watch it with intermissions which are built in at the 1 and 2 hour marks. The version online is also only 17 years old because the abridged US cut discarded whole story lines. So it’s your DUTY to watch it – stick it to those capitalist PIGS ARGH.

Decent 8/10

Train to Busan Review

Tying with 28 Days Later, Train to Busan will probably be my favourite zombie film. It’s great, zombies on a small scale are always best. It’s shot well, transferring from wide angle action to shallow intimate moments which is edited harmoniously but, then again, not very memorably. Plus the soundtrack is a little loud at times, sometimes overpowering and cheapening drama. But the premise allows the set pieces and choreography to be completely unique in this cramped, narrow space. To have a zombie film in a train is a great idea, and mostly the characters are believable… apart from this old woman woman who kills about twenty people in her carriage for what seems like plot convenience. Typing this out now makes the segment seem less crazy than it was in the film, believe me, it was unjustified, the character was waay too underdeveloped.

Moving on…

All of the performances get A’s, the zombies are frightening, strong like World War Z, fast like 28 Days later, contorting and bone cracking like me getting up in the morning. The performance from Kim Soo-Ahn as the daughter, in particular, was very impressive for her age. But the best character performance was from Dong Seok Ma who contributes some great moral and comic relief as well as being a brilliant zombie decking action badass.

One of the only criticisms I have is at times the CG looks pretty unnatural. The first scene of (D’oh! A Deer) an undead deer has some obvious CG blood on the road, and in many scenes, zombies are piling on top of one another en masse, and the pile looks blurred and fluid, (again like World War Z)

But overall this film is tension filled and thrilling, it played my emotions and reactions with a lot of brains, for me it managed to make zombies fresh, and that’s high praise, I’ve seen The Walking Dead. 8/10