The Black Phone

"Stranger Things" seems to have opened a door, a gateway I suppose, to Gen-Xers' nostalgic hunger of 70s and 80s horror films. We have had a splatter of very recent examples; "Fear Street: 1978," "American Horror Story: 1984," and "X" (set in 1979) to name a few. Now we have "The Black Phone," set in 1978 in a Colorado suburb. Kids are disappearing and the only clue left behind, a sinister black balloon. Meanwhile Finney (played by the wonderful Mason Thames) is being picked on in middle school by bullies - Finney needs to learn to stand up for himself, like his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) who also is having dreams about the missing kids. The film is based off of a short story by Joe Hill and it has similarities to his even more famous father's work, "Carrie." Ethan Hawke plays the mask wearing, child abducting, creep-o (I think he will get a best supporting Oscar nod for this one) and he is terrifying. Oh and if you didn't guess already, Finney gets taken by old creep-o and some ghosts, by the way of a broken phone, help Finney out. Sounds ridiculous, however it's extremely well done - that's how it got on the blog! Only good stuff here people. I don't scare easily but there were a couple of jump scares that got me good. Well done. Answer the call and see this one in the theatres while you can.  

Stranger Things

"Stranger Things" was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016. In the show, the year was 1983. The main character, Eleven was about the same age as the actress playing her, Millie Bobby Brown, who was 12 (Eleven was 12 years old - confusing I know). The same age as my daughter at the time. My son was 10. The fourth season of the show has now aired in 2022. In the show, it's now 1986. The characters have only aged three years but the actors have aged six. My kids were were 10 and 12, now 16 and 18. Big years for them, big for the kids in the show. We have watched them grow up in parallel. It's been a family adventure and one which I have cherished because the creators of the show, The Duffer Brothers, tapped into my childhood - a montage of 80s films referenced: "E.T.," "The Goonies," "Carrie," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and John Carpenter's "The Thing" all figured prominently in the first season. Now we are into the epic fourth season, films like "Nightmare on Elm Street," "House" (1985),"Alien," "Sixteen Candles," and "Lifeforce," pepper this season's imagery - darker and more mature, like our teens.

If you haven't watched it, it's about a small town called Hawkins and they have a government facility, a lab, and they are performing secret experiments on kids. A teen has gone missing. Turns out he was trapped in an alternate world just below the town itself - The Upside-down. I won't bother to explain more. It's a science fiction/horror show likened to the films I previously referenced. There is a heavy nostalgia factor for me and it's been a joy to share with my own kids. It's smart, it's fun, and it's one of the best things on TV. Take a trip to the Upside-down on Netflix, Kate Bush will meet you there in season 4.

Men

I've been an Alex Garland fan since he penned the screenplay for "28 Days Later." His first writing/directing debut was "Ex Machina" and he followed it up with "Annihilation" (think of an all female version of John Carpenter's "The Thing" but in the tropics Vs. the Antarctic). The men (or a good chunk of them) of "28 Days Later" and "Ex Machina" are portrayed as sex crazed evil doers. In Garland's latest film, "Men," he has done nothing to elevate the stature of the male gender in any way. In fact, the men in "Men" seem to be violent, emotionally needy, and likely sex crazed. I hypothesize Garland's view to be: men equate sex with love and if the sex is lost, so too are the men. What's it all about? Jessie Buckley plays Harper, a woman who has gone on holiday in the English countryside after the suicide of her husband James. She is haunted by the memory of James and physically haunted by some strange man in the woods - although all the men around her cottage-house are creepy as fuck. The film has a superb sense of unease, dreed, and horror. It becomes surreal in the end and this horror/meditation about the weight women bare is brought out in some of the most disturbing, deranged, and dreadful imagery I have every seen. The images have haunted me. It's extremely well done. Catch this horror show at your local rep cinema or on streaming services.

Elvis

In a world where there are literally dozens of Elvis impersonation festivals held around the world, meaning thousands upon thousands of people, every year, dress up and sing like the King of Rock and Roll, Austin Butler, the young man who plays Elvis Presley in the new movie "Elvis" had a giant rhinestone jumpsuit to fill. Let me tell you, Austin Butler will no doubt be nominated for an Oscar, I also believe he will win. The kid knocked it out of the park - I was looking at Elvis Presley for close to three hours. As my friend Edward told me, (and I'm paraphrasing) "You can't capture somebody's life story in two or three hours." I agree. However "Elvis" does a great job of giving us a history lesson of the black culture Elvis grew up in, the gritty dirty blues and the gospel church singing - gyrating to the point of enraptured ecstasy. This music so powerfully influenced him, the result was it gave 'Black' music to white conservative audiences. The music in the film occasionally transitioned to contemporary rap - felt almost "Moulin Rouge!" at times - bringing that musical history some weight (some people might not like it but I loved it). The movie has a breakneck pace and holds its foot on the pink Cadillac gas pedal to the floor. Tom Hanks (with an accent that might be the movie's only flaw) plays Elvis's manager, the Colonel. He helped bring Elvis to super stardom but also prevented him from becoming something potentially even greater. The Colonel exploited Elvis and was the cause of the great singer's demise. Catch this likely to be Oscar nominated film in theatres before it leaves the building. 

The Phantom of the Open

Mark Rylance stars as Maurice Flitcroft in this true story of a crane operator, who, at age 44 took up golf. Not unbelievable at all except two years later, with mail-order golf clubs and no formal training, entered into the 1976 British Open as a professional. After rising to fame for his stupid stunt, Flitcroft snuck back in the following year wearing a fake moustache and posed as a Frenchman, Gerald Hoppy, If you enjoyed "Eddie the Eagle," then this film is sure to please. The movie would be flat if it was just about a hopeless golfer out of his depth; it's about Maurice's attitude towards life and the relationships he has with his wife and three sons. His eldest and adopted son, Michael found his father's antics to be a complete embarrassment and drove a wedge (see what I did there) in their relationship - a good chunk of the story is about the healing of family. Maybe a tad cliché but I am a sucker for underdog sports movies. Catch this hole-in-one in cinemas or on streaming services.  

Mad God

I must confess, I had no idea who Phil Tippett was until the power of Google and Wikipedia told me- he (and some other folks) are the people who gave us those  AT-AT Imperial Walkers in "Return of the Jedi." Tippett has been nominated five times for an Academy Award for his special effects work and has won twice. Tippett is a stop motion master and "Mad God" is his thirty year side project, which according to my internet findings, resulted in Tippett being checked into a mental health facility. Well let me tell you, "Mad God" is one of the most craziest things I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. What's it all about? This is my best shot: it's about a little chap, dressed like a World War One miner (metal helmet, gas mask, bulky grey hazmat like apparel) who descends in a sarcophagus like container/elevator, through a multilevel science fiction hell. He has a map and a quest to blowup this nether world. He is captured, and his guts are surgically removed in a "let's dig a hole in the sand" method - it's pretty gross. Inside our little gas-miner friend is a squealing baby insect like thing which is then brought to a kind of high priest like figure - something out of Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain." The baby bug is squished and the result is the ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey." Well not quite, but close enough. It's kind of like a stop motion version of "The Cremaster Cycle" crossed with the sensibilities of Heavy Metal magazine. There is no dialogue. It's bonkers. Catch one of the most visually interesting things in your local rep cinema or on streaming services.

Crimes of the Future

I have been a David Cronenberg fan for close to 40 years. "Dead Ringers" was the film though that really turned me into a "Rabid" fan. Themes of mutation and transformation run deep throughout Cronenberg's filmography; think of "Dead Ringers," "The Fly," and "M. Butterfly," as examples. The body as identity - for Cronenberg, it's not 'we live in our bodies' but rather 'our bodies live in us.' Or more explicitly, we are organic machines and we can get tune-ups, upgrades; our individual identities coming from, to a large extent, our bodies ("Crash," "eXistenZ") - there is no separation, you are your flesh; and for Cronenberg the flesh is often both deeply sexual and grotesque. Cronenberg has been talking about beauty contests for internal organs since "Dead Ringers." Which is a nice segue to talk about his latest masterpiece, "Crimes of the Future." To me, this movie felt like an accumulation of a body of work, all of Cronenberg's themes and ideas about the body, sexuality, and criminality; and I mean this in the best possible way. What's it all about? Viggo Mortensen (this is his fourth movie with Cronenberg) stars as Saul Tenser, a man who grows internal organs of unknown purpose in his abdomen in a giant walnut like bed/pod. When it's time to have the organ harvested, his partner, Caprice (Léa Seydoux) performs public surgery (while people gawk with martinis and cigarettes) as a piece of performance art - yes it's completely bananas. I found it to be grotesque, perplexing, and wildly entertaining. I don't profess to understand it but was certainly challenged by it. Time flew by. It's must viewing for Cronenberg fans. If you enjoyed "Titane" from my last year's recommended list, then this is your next foray into weird. The future in now. Catch it in cinemas if you can or on streaming services.