A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Otto Messmer, “Feline Follies” (1919) By no means a great cartoon or even a mildly interesting one, this animated short is notable mainly for the first…
Dick Huemer, “The Little Pest” (1931) Chiefly remarkable for its depiction of sibling-on-sibling violence, this short cartoon stars the boy Scrappy, who would go on to…
Ub Iwerks, “Balloon Land” (1935) For sure this cartoon with the Hansel-and-Gretel morality fairy-tale plot is weird and dark, and its theme of the fragility of…
Dave Fleischer, “Swing You Sinners!” (1930) A bizarre little cartoon short, filled with the most startling surreal imagery and mobile rubber-limbed characters typical of cartoons in…
Michael Chaves , “The Curse of La Llorona” (2019) As his full-length movie directorial debut, this horror flick perhaps shows all the faults as well as…
French and French-language Films
Alain Resnais, “Last Year at Marienbad / L’Année dernière à Marienbad” (1961) At times hilarious, and at other times maddeningly boring and repetitive, this film is…
French and French-language Films
Gaspar Noe, “Climax” (2018) In the hands of Argentine-French director Gaspar Noe, a story about a group of young dancers hired to be part of a…
Ford Beebe, “The Invisible Man’s Revenge” (1944) It could have been an interesting character study about various individuals’ motivations and greed, and how far they’re prepared…
Italian and Italian-language Films
Lucio Fulci, “Don’t Torture a Duckling / Non si sevizia un paperino” (1973) Fret not, no ducklings, nor indeed any animals, were harmed in the making…
Robin Hardy “The Wicker Man” (1973) In spite of a small budget and the set-backs it suffered during filming and the post-production process, this short movie…