The Red Violin (1998, R)

This is a Canadian film originally entitled Le Violon Rouge.  This film begins with a brief scene as Samuel L. Jackson entering a Montreal auction house that is selling fine antique musical instruments.  After that, it moves to a series of vignettes around the several-century history of the famed (in the world of the film) Red Violin, separated by the auction house scene being retold from the point of view of different prospective buyers.  The framing sequence is in English and the other stories are spoken in (and subtitled from, when applicable) Italian, German, French, English and Mandarin depending on the setting of the stories.  This format could easily be boring, as I don't find the history of a musical instrument to be particularly entrancing, but each of the stories is quite different from the others and each is a quite good short story on its own.  They have character and they have heart.  It would take a sharper ear than mine to hear the differences between one violin and another when the same musician is playing the same musical piece, but the title instrument is said to be "the perfect acoustic machine", and some characters in the stories can tell this immediately.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, R)

This film, based on a true story, is about a bank robbery gone FUBAR that turned into a hostage situation.  The whole film is from the point of view of the main robber, Sonny Wortzik, played by Al Pacino (The Devil's Advocate, Scent Of A Woman, Scarface).  The movie is not a comedy, but I definitely chuckled a few times early in the film as various things go wrong and various characters prove that they don't know what they're doing (Ocean's 11, they are not!).  Sonny is clearly a first-time bank robber, and when they arrive I wonder if the police on the scene are first-time cops.  The detective in charge is played by Charles Durning (Tootsie, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas).

Kissed (1996 , R)

This film is not for everyone, let me just say that from the start.  It's about a girl played by Molly Parker (from several tv series such as Deadwood, Shattered, Dexter) who has a fascination/obsession with death.  She doesn't wear black (ever, I think) and she doesn't write mopey poetry, but she has this... "reverence" is probably the best word for it... for the dead.  It's somehow less creepy than it should be (a little less creepy) because she seems to have a genuine love for the departed rather than a morbid curiosity.  The movie starts with her as a child as she caresses a dead bird she found and rubs it on her neck before "enshrouding" it in toilet paper and planting it in a grave in the woods behind her house.  And it goes on from there.  She grows up and the film follows her obsession through each phase of her life.  Ultimately with her taking night classes in college and working full time in a funeral parlor (her dream job) during the day.  The childhood scenes seem to take place in the early 1960's and the young adulthood scenes in the '70's.
 

Bangkok Dangerous (1999, R)

This film is quite different from the 2008 Hollywood remake starring Nicholas Cage.  They both feature a hitman and take place largely in Bangkok, Thailand, but the tone and storytelling styles of the two are almost polar opposites.  The original film is about a deaf-mute, living and working in Bangkok his whole life and has two close friends who also work in the industry (one is a male fellow hitman with whom he has partnered in the past and the other is a woman who gives them their assignments); the remake is about a distinctly non-hearing impaired American lone hitman whose current assignment is in Bangkok.  The dialogue of the original film's script could probably fit on a couple sheets of paper, and the story is told mostly with the music, a home-video style montage and some brief interactions; the remake is a full-scale action movie with a tremendously higher budget and full-conversations.

The Masque Of The Red Death (1964, NR)

This was the first film I've seen that was directed by Roger Corman, but he's a bit of a famous director and I'm told that this movie (or any of his Edgar Allen Poe adaptations) would be a good one to start with.  The main actor in the film is Vincent Price (The Fly, Tales Of Terror), who is a camp-horror cult icon.  Unfortunately for me, the first (and only, for the longest time) movie in which I saw him act was Edward Scissorhands in which he played a lovable -if idiosyncratic- old man.  This messed with my mind in the opening scene of Masque Of The Red Death, because here he plays a sadistic, despotic, decadent, Satan-worshipping Prince Prospero who is in no way lovable.  The story takes place in a vaguely-Medieval Europe and all fear a plague they call the Red Death.  The Prince is also about to host a several-day party in his castle for his aristocrat friends.

The Four-Faced Liar (2010, R)

This movie is basically an exploration of different types of interpersonal relationships (friendships, romance, etc).  The main characters include a cohabiting tidy couple, a non-cohabiting less-tidy more spontaneous couple, and the non-cohabiting guy's also-non-tidy lesbian roommate.  The characters all move into their respective New York apartments at the start of the school year (all but one are students, the other a recent grad) and encounter each other at the film's namesake, a bar called The Four-Faced Liar, named after a clock tower in Ireland (so I'm told by the characters) that among its four clock faces tell four different incorrect times.

I Sell The Dead (2008, NR)

Netflix has this listed as a drama, but I think it would be more accurately described as a lightly (adverb referring to both of the following adjectives) dark comedy.  It stars Dominic Monaghan (Charlie from the Lost series, Merry from Lord Of The Rings) as a grave robber convicted of grave robbing and murder, on the eve of his execution by guillotine, relating his story to an interviewing monk played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons Of Anarchy series) who wants to record his story.  It starts off as a fine vignette-style story, that in tone reminds me of some H.P. Lovecraft or Robert Louis Stevenson stories (but not the most famous from either: not Call Of Cthulhu or Treasure Island, more The Reanimator or The Body Snatcher), but later changes to more of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  Not that they slay the undead, but that such corpses fetch a heftier price than the standard dead.  From what I understand, it was not uncommon for surgeons and medical schools in the 19th century and prior to purchase cadavers from shifty individuals for medical research purposes (the cadavers where not aways without a pulse prior to encounter with the shifty individuals).  I am pleased to say that the main characters of this film did not create cadavers themselves, but reclaimed already-deceased ones.

Apartment 12 (2001, R)

I imagine this film would have had the more lenient rating of PG-13 if it had been released through a larger production studio (it has sex, but not really any nudity, no drug use, and there was some language but not pervasive throughout the film).  It stars a younger-looking Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers, The Brothers Bloom) as an (aspiring) artist whose girlfriend breaks up with him and kicks him out of their apartment (so that he must rent a new apartment... guess what the unit number is).  Granted, we don't see a lot of their life prior to this point, but the reason for Yvette (ex-girlfriend) kicking ending their relationship is unclear, enough that Ruffalo is blindsided by it.  For the early part of the film, all of the small and medium-sized things go wrong with his life and it was amusing (as opposed to Spider-Man 2, druing which I expected Parker to compulsively harm himself).  His new apartment building is like an Island of Misfit Toys which I often like in stories (like the 2004 Punisher film).  The film follows him in his pursuit of creating art and finding companionship.

The Human Tornado (1976, R)

This movie was pretty ridiculous.  I haven't seen a lot of blaxploitation movies before, so I don't know if the things that struck me were tropes of the genre or not.  I don't think it was intended as comedy (but maybe it was), but just one of those 70's B-movies that we can watch and laugh at today: there was some horribly mid-dubbed dialogue with what I'm pretty sure is an entirely English-speaking cast, and the small-town white people in the first scene were caricatures of next-to-retarded racist hicks.  Elements that I know were common tropes were the "martial arts" fighting, and the song and/or dance numbers in the nightclub scenes.  The premise of the story is that the main character, Dolemite (who apparently is the lead in a series of films), is on the run from the small-town racist sherrif and when he looks for his friend, Queen Bee, in California he finds out she's in trouble of a different kind, so he decides to help.  Her (mostly black) nightclub has proven to be too much competition for a mafia-backed (white-owned, clientelle is largely black with some white) nightclub, so the Italian owner starts some trouble. 

Black Dahlia (2006, R)

This movie has been on my instant queue for quite some time now but I hadn't gotten around to watching it.  I guess it never called out to me.  But now I'm so glad I watched it.  The film is based on a James Ellroy novel that was inspired by an actual murder investigation in 1940's Los Angeles.  The film starts with a voiceover by lead-actor Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, 40 Days And 40 Nights) as he introduces himself and another cop played by Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking, The Dark Knight) amid a police vs army vs navy vs civillians riot.  I'm pretty sure this narration and noir role were what inspired Robert Rodriguez to cast Hartnett in the opening scene to Sin City (which was also a test shot used to convince Frank Miller to allow him to make a film based on Miller's iconic graphic novels).  Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers, Girl With A Pearl Earring) plays Eckhart's girlfriend, Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, P.S. I Love You) plays a raven-haired femme fatale, and Mia Kirshner (Not Another Teen Movie, The Crow: City Of Angels) plays the victim (she does indeed have some non-dead screen time as the investigation unfolds; this is not a spoiler, not a clue).

The Seige (1998, R)

This film falls pretty cleanly into two arcs and each has solid value, I personally enjoyed the first part more than the second.  Denzel Washington (Remember The Titans, Training Day) plays an FBI agent in charge of an investigation to catch/stop a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist cell in New York city.  The first part of this film has the FBI following leads, investigating, responding to threats, and chasing suspects.  I'm starting to realize that I tend to enjoy procedural police investigations on film, at least when the detectives are clever.  The Denzel's unit in the FBI had a plethora (I always think of The Three Amigos when I hear that word) of other television actors that I like: his partner was played by Tony Shalhoub (Monk, Wings), also in the unit were Lance Reddick (Agent Broyles from Fringe), Mark Valley (Fringe, Human Target), and Danny Proval (The Sopranos). 

Dakota Skye (2008, R)

This one has kind of  a cool concept.  The title character is an Arizona, high school senior, misfit who has the power to always see the truth behind people's statements.  If someone says something that's not 100% true then she'll see subtitles (not always at the bottom of the screen, but in whatever part of the screen has some available space... placement is kind of like dialogue bubbles in a comic book) telling the true version of it.  Having this ability from a young age will inherently influence someone's behavior and outlook on life, and she basically withdraws from life.  She doesn't really engage in interactions or activities, she doesn't get a cell phone or a driver's license, she doesn't have any plans for after high school.  Most of her friends are studying for the SAT so they can go to college, but not everyone goes to college after high school and Dakota claims she doesn't want to, but she could still stand to figure out what she'll do instead (waitress, trade school, peace corps, join a band, hitchhike across the country with a serial killer, whatever).  She's not exactly a hero of mine, but she did make one well-adjusted/healthy observation (as narration) about her boyfriend: "he's a liar, but not worse than anyone else"(because everyone's a liar to some degree and she factored that into the equation).

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976, R)

I had first heard of this film as the 2005 remake with Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Gattaca) and Lawrence Fishburne (The Matrix, Boyz N The Hood) which I still have not seen though I am a fan of both of those actors, so when I saw that there was an original film written and directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, Escape From New York) I had to add it to my queue as homework.  And I'm so glad I did!  Hollywood tends to remake films not because they think the first one had unfulfilled potential, but because it has a strong following and/or made money and they want to make more money.  That in mind, it will usually be worth your while to watch a movie that was later remade.  When the film began the first thing I noticed was the low-resolution film quality, which I suppose is inherent for any movie of a certain age that has not been transferred to Blu Ray.  The opening music, while unfamiliar to me does have that certain quality that can make it recognizable and a good iconic them to a song (kind of like the theme to Halloween [Tubular Bells, it's called], and interestingly enough John Carpenter also composed the music for both Halloween and Assault On Precinct 13).  The early lines in the movie seemed kind of uninspired as the backdrop for the story was being set up, but the dialogue for the main characters once they were introduced was noticeably sharp.  One of the elements that makes a film a cult classic is to have infinitely quotable lines, and this one delivered.  The dialogue was sparse compared to most other movies, but almost every line tended to be a one-liner that made each character a great character.  The early scenes were sort of whatever, but as the movie progressed I found myself very much invested in the characters.  Though the characters in this movie wore nothing like a tuxedo or a formal suit, I can imagine a damned fun cocktail party with the main characters of this film along with Rick (Humphrey Bogart's character) from Casablanca and Frank Sinatra.

Romantics Anonymous (2010, NR)

I think the title of this film is either a translation that leaves something to be desired a joke reference to an element in the film.  This is a French film (subtitled in English for those of us with limited multi-linguistic ability) about two people who are involved in the chocolate industry and who each have a crippling shyness.  Angelique is a classically trained and exceptionally talented chocolatier who seeks employment at a chocolate factory.  She is a member of a support group for overly emotional/neurotic/shy people: Emotionals Anonymous (the title of the film is a twist on this).  Jean-Rene, the chocolate factory owner (more of a small shop really, as he has only 4 employees), is very much afraid of physical or emotional contact with other people and hires Angelique (first interviewee of the day) as a sales rep possibly so he doesn't have to interview another stranger.  She is too shy to correct him regarding her intended position and ends up suffering through a very human-contact oriented position.  This is an understated comedy, kind of like The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou or Wristcutters: A Love Story, and though much of the humor was due to awkwardness, I didn't find it unpleasant like I did with much of Sleeping Dogs Lie or Punch Drunk-Love.

V For Vendetta (2005, R)

NOSTALGIA WARNING.  Ok, maybe "nostalgia" isn't quite the correct word, but I should warn you that -unlike every review I've posted so far- this is not my first viewing of this film.  In fact I watch this movie every year on Nov 5 (if you've seen the movie and/or are familiar with Guy Fawkes Day, you'll understand the significance).  But the point of my warning is that I have some pre-existing affection for this film and so you should take my advice with a grain of salt.  But you should anyway, so I guess I'll just try to list the good and bad things about the movie as well as I can.  Also, please be aware that this film is not currently available to stream on Netflix: I watched it on DVD.

This movie is based on a graphic novel by Allan Moore (League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Watchmen; I know people tend to say this about all book-to-film adaptations [except American Psycho, the film of which does a better job of telling a/the story, I think], but the print version is far superior to the films for both of these) and the screenplay was written by the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix).  Good start, right?  Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings) plays the title role of V, the mysterious anti-hero/vigilante/terrorist who perpetually wears a full black cloak (think Soloman Kane) and a metal Guy Fawkes mask.

CQ (2001, R)

I had gotten through all of my "homework" movies that were going to lose the streaming option, and there were 4 of the time-sensitive movies that I wanted to see more than the others.  I knew I wouldn't get a chance to see more than one or maybe two before midnight when they dropped off (it was the last day).  I chose poorly.

The title of CQ was not thoroughly explained, though in one of the main character's dream sequences he saw a computer screen flashing between "CQ" and "seek you"... that's as good as I've got for you, folks, sorry.  The setup is that the main character Paul is a film editor (second-unit director: cuts and pastes the film stock into the proper order, with visually effective timing/etc based on the daily shots filed by the first-unit director), and American in Paris in 1969-1970, working on a sci-fi spy film taking place on the moon in the far future: the year 2001!

Luther (2010, NR)

I know this is a television series rather than a movie, but I watched the whole thing over the weekend and I really liked it so I want to tell you about it.  What I like about television series is that they can develop characters far more thoroughly than a two-hour film can.  Either the BBC consistently creates fantastic television (which I tend to believe) or I've just been incredibly lucky with the series I've watched so far (Sherlock, Jekyll, Party Animals, Luther, Doctor Who: I strongly recommend them all).  One of the factors I like so much about these British shows is that the seasons/series tend to be roughly 6 episodes.  I like shorter runs because it makes it easier to watch the entire story and it's far less intimidating to start (for example, I really want to watch all of The X-Files, but in the back of my head I know it will take me a long long time to finish and so I keep putting it off).  Also, the shorter year's-worth of programming tends to allow more quality per episode compared to pumping out a new episode every week for months on end.  Sort of interesting is that American shows call a year's-worth a season and the collection of all seasons as a series compared to British shows calling the year's-worth a series (I'm not sure what they call the combined series; perhaps one of my UK readers could help me out with that)... you could note that the British shows tend to make one solid story arc across the entire series (also with a solid story per episode) whereas American shows tend to be more episodic and disconnected.

Idris Elba (The Losers, Prometheus) played the title character, the flawed but very clever DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) John Luther.  I would describe this show as a cross between CSI (Crime
Scene Investigation), Sherlock and The Shield.  It's a procedural crime drama with a new case each episode like CSI, it has the individual intelligence and character arc from Sherlock (specifically the currently-running BBC series), and it has some of the moral ambiguity of The Shield.