If I did believe you, and I'm not saying for a second that I do, but if I did, nobody else would. Relentless, mysterious and one hell of a puzzle, SALT defines "non-stop action thriller". Director Philip Noyce is the man behind "Clear and Present Danger", "Patriot Games" and "Dead Calm". He brings that same propulsive sense of intrigue to this tale of CIA agent Evelyn Salt. When new Russian defector Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) casually reveals that she is actually an imbedded Russian spy intent on assassination, Salt (Angelina Jolie) breaks into action, escaping from CIA headquarters in just the first of many fast paced action scenes. Her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber from "Spotlight" and "The Sum of All Fears") is startled. Is she escaping to prove herself innocent or complete her mission? The target of the assassination attempt is The President of Russia, in the USA for the funeral of our own VP. Like "The Day of the Jackal" on speed, the film tracks Salt as she juggles Mike, the husband she loves who is suddenly in everyone's crosshairs, Peabody, (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "American Gangster") the one senior American agent who seems to be hottest on her trail, and a never ending lineup of agencies right behind her. I loved WInter's complete devotion to not believing she's a mole or a long time, embedded double agent. As the evidence begins to mount and the casualties pile up in her wake, he begins to have doubts. SALT has it all. Thrilling car chases with Jolie doing a lot of her own stunts and putting Tom Cruise to shame in the "jumping from vehicle to vehicle" department? Check. Assaults on our President with Secret Service agents frantically moving him into never before seen bunkers? Check. Double crosses and surprise twists you never see coming? Check. One of the best chases through a subway and train since "The French Connection"? Checkmate. Set to a great score by James Newton Howard (Signs, The Dark Knight, King Kong) and shot by the legendary Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Tomorrow Never Dies), this is an action flick with class. Jolie is excellent from start to finish, believable in every dramatic confrontation AND fight scene. Danging off bridges and leaping from every kind of transportation you can think of, she's a blast. SALT kept me guessing through its final scene, earning a memorable A. WHO IS SALT? I didn't know until the final moments.

I don't know a red-blooded American male that doesn't weep at the power of RUDY. Between Jerry Goldsmith's music, Sean Astin's perfect performance as a blue collar dreamer and the power of its roots in a true story, this is the sports film that makes every grown man choke up. Yep. Me too. The film immerses us in Rudy's family life in a small steel town. He's been told his entire life he's too small to play football, he's not smart enough to attend Notre Dame. Ned Beatty is terrific as his Father Daniel, whose own dreams never looked beyond the mill. His speech to Rudy at the Greyhound bus station is sad and believable. After a tragedy, Rudy leaves everything and heads to Notre Dame, determined to play football for The Irish and prove every naysayer wrong. There's so much that this film gets right. The casting is amazing. Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, The Goonies) IS Rudy. He never has a non-genuine moment in the entire film. Jason Miller (The Exorcist) is excellent as Coach Ara Parseghian. A very young Jon Favreau is hilarious as D-Bob, a TA at Holy Cross who quickly bonds with Rudy. Charles S. Dutton (Alien3) is Notre Dame groundskeeper Fortune, Rudy's ticket onto the field long before he attends the university. Dutton is fantastic. I've never been a huge Notre Dame fan, but watching Dutton's face as Rudy repeats his favorite Knute Rockne speech in an empty locker room, I think I get it. Tradition and history are a powerful combo and there's no better medium than film to truly stir those emotions. This is one of Jerry Goldsmith's finest scores, SOARING at all the right moments. He also knows exactly when to let the game sounds be all the accompaniment the film needs. But WOW, when Rudy opens that letter alone on the bench and one of Goldsmith's most famous themes rises from a full orchestra....whew. It should be in a museum of how great film music can elevate a scene. And the track "The Final Game" is a piece of legendary film music. Used for numerous trailers and even Presidential campaigns, it tears through you and lifts you up. If this wasn't a true story, you'd never believe it. The friendships are real, the brotherhood is powerful. This is one of only two films in history that were allowed to be shot at Notre Dame, "Knute Rockne All American" in 1940 was the other. The film wouldn't work if Sean Astin wasn't so perfectly earnest in the role. He's never delusional, just committed. He carves out a truly inspirational character and I can't think of anyone we've ever rooted for on this level. Every supporting character is carefully crafted, adding to the power of the story. This was Vince Vaughn's film debut and his first of many films with Favreau. The last twenty minutes of the film, the final game of his senior year, is flawless moviemaking, offering the perfect ending to a film that defines "crowd-pleaser." RUDY is an emotional powerhouse. It ALWAYS gets to me (and every football fan I know) no matter how many times I see it. By never patronizing to its audience and respecting the true heart that makes sports great, RUDY climbs to the top of my favorite sports films, earning an A+.

Much darker than I expected and elevated by a terrific Billy Bob Thornton, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a gritty look at the 1988 Permian High Panthers from Odessa, Texas. In an economically depressed community where Football may be the only way out, we watch the entire year from pre-season to Championship Game in the Astrodome. Watching these young men battle with the weight of the entire town behind them is powerful and at times, hard to watch. Thornton is excellent as Coach Gary Gaines, juggling overzealous boosters, the future of a lot of young men and his own tenuous grasp on the job. His final halftime speech in the film is a perfect moment that defines football, teamwork and sports. It's flawless. If you aren't moved in that moment, you probably aren't near a TV all day Saturday and Sunday every fall. The cast is excellent. Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) is hilarious as Boobie Miles, the cocky superstar of the team who faces unexpected adversity. Lucas Black (Sling Blade) is Quarterback Mike Winchell and Jay Hernandez (TV's Magnum PI) is Chavez. The third member of their rarely separated trio is Don Billingsley, well played by Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy, Triple Frontier). Country singer Tim McGraw had his first big screen role as Don's alcoholic father Charles, a despicable and abusive parent punishing his son for his own failed dreams. McGraw is damn good, and very repulsive. Against the backdrop of the struggling town and its citizens that live for Friday nights, Director Peter Berg (Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, The Kingdom) structures a compelling flight through the season that never feels rushed. He finds a near perfect balance between the personal stories off the field and the game action under the lights. Special kudos to editors Colby Parker Jr (Ant-Man, Gran Turismo), Susan Rash and David Rosenbloom (Black Mass, The Insider). Their editing of the game action delivers plenty of thrills and hits you can feel in your bones. Based on HG Bissinger's book detailing the true story of the Permian Panthers, this is a story that only real life could create. The last half hour is emotionally draining and as good as sports films get, making you feel like you ARE AT that State Championship game. I loved the final coda after the final whistle, with Berg letting the sound fade away and his images alone tell the story. Creatively it's a risk that pays off. The FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS burn bright, delivering a game time A.

With one of Paul Newman's most likeable and hilarious performances and a fast-paced, witty, action-packed screenplay by William Goldman, 1966's HARPER is as enjoyable today as it was nearly 60 years ago when it hit theaters. Goldman (Marathon Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) is indisputably one of the best (I'll say ALL-TIME best) screenwriters on the planet. Adapting Ross McDonald's novel "The Moving Target" for the screen, he keeps all of the McDonald action and intrigue intact while adding a high sheen polish rarely equaled in spy thrillers. Harper is the anti-James Bond. Still in love with his ex-wife (Janet Leigh) and rarely having the time to fall into bed with any of the beautiful women populating the film, his focus is on the mystery. And its a doozy. Lauren Bacall (talk about sultry mystery!) is Elaine Sampson, a wealthy woman whose husband has disappeared the day before. She asks her family lawyer Albert Graves (Arthur Hill from "The Andromeda Strain", funnier than I've ever seen him) to hire someone to find her husband. Graves turns to Harper, who arrives at the sprawling Sampson estate and meets plenty of eccentric characters. Pamela Tiffin (State Fair) is Elaine's beautiful daughter Miranda. Stunning in that hour glass figure, big 60's hair style that defined Raquel Welch in the era, Miranda flirts with every man in sight while go-go dancing on the diving board in a bikini. Newman's observational facial expressions in the opening 15 minutes had me laughing out loud again & again. Miranda loves playboy Sampson Corporation pilot Allan Taggart (Robert Wagner), but he's not going to settle down anytime soon. Miranda, Allan and Harper fly off to search our missing man's last contacts for any clues. The film never slows down as Harper meets a wild array of suspects, including Shelley Winters as a fading movie star who loves her booze, Robert Webber as her platonic husband whose always got a gun on Harper, and Strother Martin (Slap Shot) as a religious nut with a mountaintop sect. Julie Harris (The Haunting) is a lounge singer with a dangerous habit. I almost forgot Harold Gould (The Sting) as a local sheriff at the end of a thousand Harper barbs and Martin West (Family Plot) as his comically inept deputy. At the time, this was a radical new take on a 40's film noir mystery, infused with 1960's elements and one of Newman's best roles. One of the most effortlessly cool actors on the big screen, Newman delivers in every scene, and he's in every scene! HARPER was a one of Newman's biggest hits around the world. As Goldman's first solo screenplay, it cemented him in the big leagues and led to an incredible legacy of great films. Sadly, we lost Goldman in 2018. Harper: "The bottom is loaded with nice people, Albert. Only cream and bastards rise." ---------------------------- Elaine: " Los Angeles is the big leagues for religious nuts." Harper: "That's because there's nothing to do at night." ----------------------------- Harper: "I think your husband was kidnapped. I think that note was dictated. Your husband keeps lousy company, Mrs. Sampson, as bad as there is in L.A. And that's as bad as there is." Elaine Sampson: "I knew it. Oh, he loves playing the family man, but he never fooled me. Water seeks its own level, and that should leave Ralph bathing somewhere in a sewer." Sit back and enjoy the very clever, groovy 60's ride. HARPER gets an A+

Harrowing and well acted, Lee Daniels new horror drama THE DELIVERANCE is as horrifying pre-possession as it is once Lucifer arrives on scene. Andra Day (The United States VS. Billie Holiday) stars as Ebony, a paycheck-to-paycheck Mom with three kids, barely scratching by while battling alcoholism. The first half hour detailing every day life in the house is startling. The way that Ebony talks to (at) her children made me cringe 100 times. Foul, nasty and unrelenting, Ebony is ferocious to anyone at arm's length. Oldest son Nate (Caleb McLaughlin from "Stranger Things" and "The Book of Clarence") is protective of his siblings and most observant of Ebony's failures, while getting routinely beaten up on the way home from school. Daughter Shante (Demi Singleton from "King Richard") is just trying to fit in and live the social life that the young teen years demand, while staying in close contact with their Father, who its said is "in the military" but I was left wondering if he was just gone. He seems to be a text away at all times. Youngest son Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins of "Never Let Go") is the first to notice something strange in their new home. He is intrigued by the basement and adopts a new imaginary friend, never good in this kind of movie. Glenn Close is Ebony's mom Alberta, who still dresses like she's 25, has lived life hard, but has found Jesus. Battling cancer, she's clearly a woman trying to put a lot of things right in her life. Her devotion and protective will for her grandchildren is without question. Circling the family is social worker Cynthia, ferociously played by Mo'Nique ("Precious", "Domino") as a woman who despises Ebony's weaknesses. This could have easily been a one-note character and performance, but through the film, Cynthia becomes our eyes and ears to the startling events surrounding the family. Director Lee Daniels ("Precious", TV's "Empire") seems like a fascinating choice to helm an "Exorcist" genre film, but his strength is creating a family you care about, a struggling Mother with a very complicated Mother of her own and the growing terror surrounding Andre. It's also a tribute to Daniels' storytelling that half way into the film, I was thinking that the real horror came from the terrors that Ebony was inflicting on her children through her addiction. He brings the best out of every actor in the cast. As a horror buff, I loved the way that Andre's possession affects his siblings. Fascinating and a new wrinkle. If you've seen the underappreciated "Exorcist III" with George C. Scott, you probably, like me, think that the scenes in the nursing home, with an old woman hearing voices on her radio as she scampers up a wall and across the ceiling were far more terrifying than the giant exorcism finale. Well, that applies here. While the finale is no doubt powerful and it might even top the exorcism in last year's "Exorcist: The Believer", it is the one scene with Andre strapped to a psych ward bed that gave me chills. Mo'Nique's flawless performance in that scene and its aftermath give it instant credibility. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's appearance as Reverend Bernice James is also strong. She's as far from what you'd expect as an Exorcist as possible. The way she's slowly introduced adds some mystery as well. There are some hokey pieces of the final confrontation that are sure to become instant memes. Demons sure seem to keep their talons on the pulse of contemporary humor, but Jenkins is excellent as Andre, his innocent wide-eyed terror compelling you to save him at all the right moments. For a bit of extra terror, this film was based on a widely documented true case in Gary, Indiana. Many members of the police, social worker staff and hospital teams backed up the events as shown in my scariest scene above. If that doesn't make the film more terrifying, I don't know what will. I've never seen a possession drama in which the family was so terrified of their unpredictable, alcoholic mother, battling her demons before the real Demon even arrived. It ratchets the tension up to a unique place in the genre, even as it dances around the fiery Hell's edge of predictability. THE DELIVERANCE gets a B-.

I always wondered what happened to Halle Berry's character Jinx, one of the few redeeming qualities of Pierce Brosnan's last Bond film, "Die Another Day". I think she just resurfaced in the new comedy espionage thriller, THE UNION . A little older, a little more jaded, but this is exactly who Jinx would be at this point. Berry looks fantastic and beats the hell out of all adversaries as Roxanne Hall, a key member of The Union, one of those seemingly endless shadow organizations that operate just below the surface. They are based out of a very cool London headquarters placed high in one of that city's many jaw dropping buildings. When an operation goes wrong, Roxanne inexplicably heads back to her hometown in New Jersey to kidnap her high school boyfriend, because "he's the perfect unknown guy for the job". Mark Wahlberg is effortlessly funny as Mike McKenna, one of those thermos toting, blue collar dudes that seem to stumble out of a Home Depot commercial, waking up after their latest one night stand, heading out to grab a homemade breakfast from their Ma (the excellent Lorraine Bracco from "Goodfellas" and "The Sopranos") before heading to dangle their feet off of a skyscraper. OK, there's nothing groundbreaking here. But that's not to say it isn't a lot of fun. Roxanne kidnaps Mike, whisks him off to London and begins training him in a two week crash course for his important role in saving Western Civilization. If you had time to stop and even think about this plot, it's as dumb as a tin lunchbox full of rocks. But you won't have time, as the movie throws an excellent cast at you, rope-a-doping you with one perfectly cast actor after another. JK Simmons (Whiplash, Spider-Man) is Simmons, the fast talking, one-liner dropping boss of the Union. His interactions with the standard CIA talking heads are laugh out loud funny. Mike Colter (Evil, Plane) is excellent as team member Nick Faraday. Imposing, smooth and dangerous, Colter's a blast. Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, The Bad News Bears) is the team member from hell as the Foreman, the sarcastic "Q" of the bunch. The action scenes are plentiful, shot on stunning European locations and keep you laughing in all the right ways. I found myself thinking about Peter Bogdanavich's classic "What's Up Doc?" and the duplicate suitcases in that film as the briefcase with all the superspy data bounced from rooftop to good guy to bad guy in some very fast & funny chase scenes. If I'm thinking about that 1972 classic in any reference, that's a good thing. But the biggest adversary that the film has isn't whatever super power gains access to "that file with the name and address of every government agent in the world" (again? how many times can people try to steal this same stuff?). The most lethal thing looming over the film is the absolute lack of chemistry between its two leads. Wahlberg is in his funniest, most action-packed, boy-from-Boston kicking ass mode and very enjoyable. Berry is a treat, engaged in the same kind of hand to hand, jaw dropping fights that she excelled in as Sofia in "John Wick 3", she also brings some moments of heart and consequence to the movie. They're both beyond fine, they're a lot of fun. But as a romantic couple, their chemistry is an absolute zero. Nada. Double O Zilch. As long as the bad guys are circling, bullets are flying with jet boats zooming by and helicopters overhead, you don't notice. But trap these two in a shipping container for a clandestine trip back to the states and things get a bit dull very quickly. I've seen wet matches with more spark. Enjoy the action, don't expect much in the way of chemistry between the leads and you'll find THE UNION a pleasant Friday night diversion. I would watch JK Simmons smart ass his way through a government agency's ranks any night of the week. The city of Boise has never been so effective a punch line. THE UNION twists and turns its way to a B-

For at least the first half of its running time, 1408 is one of the strongest Stephen KIng short story adaptions I've seen. As with most King stories, they've got a great yarn to build from. John Cusack (Say Anything, The Raven) stars as TMZ level novelist Mike Enslin. After a promising first novel and a tragic life event, he's now wallowing in writing about haunted hotels, debunking them while fabricating the most sensationalistic version of what he experiences, which is typically nothing. Like those TV Ghost Hunters, there seem to be spooks wherever he goes, but are there? Really? After receiving a mysterious postcard, he heads to the Dolphin Hotel in New York City to stay in room 1408. He's greeted by Hotel Manager Gerard Olin (Samuel L. Jackson, relishing his brief role and bringing the goods) who offers to give him every bit of sorted history AND an $800 bottle of scotch to NOT stay in the room. But Mike is past the point of believing and caring, so Gerald reluctantly gives him the key, letting him know that more than 50 people have died in the room and NO ONE has lasted more than an hour after checking in. It's a fun premise that's built for suspense and scares. The screenplay is no slouch, with Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Ed Wood) crafting a fun first half. But the film has a couple things that make it challenging for it to hold its intensity for the entire running time. It's basically a one man show after Enslin shuts the door of 1408. Yes, other characters, dead & alive, pop in and out, but Cusack has 90% of the screen time to himself. That's not a bad thing. Cusack has always given his characters a quirky, fascinating edge. But an hour in a room is a long time to sustain suspense. As the film goes on, stretching King's original story to nearly two hours, it begins to collapse under its own mythology, but it's never less than involving. Mary McCormack (Private Parts) is excellent as Lily, Mike's estranged wife and she brings real feeling to a final scene that emerges out of nowhere to close things out in strong fashion. Len Cariou (Blue Bloods) is okay but not given a lot to do as Mike's father. Room 1408 is a bit like those rooms in King's Overlook Hotel in "The Shining", stretching and morphing into some pretty expansive spaces within the mind. But NOTHING here approaches any scares even half the equal of Kubrick's film, even though they plow some of the same psychological turf. The room may be "pure evil" but the 2007 PG-13 rating makes it Evil-light in the scheme of things. A solid hit in theaters, it still plays pretty well today, limited only by its rating and a creeping sense of being stage bound that sets in about an hour on. It only scares up a C for me, paling in comparison to that much larger hotel dominating my King memories. For you real-life hotel ghost hunters, take note that due to alleged paranormal activity, the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio, Texas has sealed one of their rooms, 1408. Perhaps King's inspiration? Also, anyone out there still fascinated with the number 13 will have plenty to discuss after viewing!

Morgan Freeman is legendary. Every word, every motion conveys gravitas. Even he can't breathe any life into the role of Alex Cross in his second film as the detective in 2001's ALONG CAME A SPIDER ? Why? Because he's trapped in a film with so many plot holes and logic lapses in its story that you're left at the end scratching your head in confusion. And not in a good, "Inception" or "The Prestige" way. A big "twist" two thirds of the way through the story was as bad as M. Night's stupid "The Village" reveal. My reaction wasn't "oh, how clever", I just kept saying aloud, "that doesn't make any sense". The film opens with a rip roaring action scene in which Alex Cross is in a helicopter, observing his female partner in a red sports car with a known killer, trying to entrap him (I guess?). There are hidden cameras here that are the first head scratching hints of credibility gaps, but it soon ends with a high speed crash and death that's marred as much by bad early CGI as questionable logic. The best part of that opening scene is the music by Jerry Goldsmith. This was one of his last scores before his death, and it's his usual soaring, awesome action music. The man has written so many great scores (Patton, Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, Basic Instinct, First Blood, Poltergeist, Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and he's still firing on all cylinders here. But even he and Freeman can't save this mess. We move on to the main plot, with a senator's daughter attending a private school. Her history teacher Mr/ Soneji (a strong Michael Wincott from "Nope") is obviously wearing bad theatrical makeup. No one seems to notice, even though it's absurdly bad. Before you can say "Class Dismissed", Soneji kidnaps Megan, the senator's daughter and whisks her away to a boat, storing her in a locked, sound proof cabin. The Secret Service agent in charge, Jezzie Flannigan, played by Monica Potter, (who I'll never forgive for being part of that crapfest "Patch Adams") botched her protection duty as bad as those idiots protecting Trump in Pennsylvania and gets yelled at by her boss, McArthur. Dylan Baker (Happiness, Selma) is such a great character actor that I kept hoping the movie would give him more to do as McArthur. Soneji immediately pulls the semi-retired Alex Cross into the case, wanting to engage in an elaborate cat and mouse game with him to save Megan. Alas, this is where the screenplay by Marc Moss begins its plummet into the nonsensical. It's been 23 years since this movie hit theaters, so I'm not sure a spoiler alert is necessary, but just in case, STOP READING NOW , and know that I gave this dumb mess a D. Okay, take a ride with me here. * How would Jezzie know where the boat is where Soneji is keeping Megan? * How would Jezzie and Ben know what kind of voice masking system Soneji was going to use? * Why the elaborate chase all over Washington City when it would have been easier just to steal the diamonds by having them dropped to one of them? * Why would Jezzie keep every bit of the elaborate two year scheme on her computer with a password that she's practically handed to Cross, one of the greatest detectives since Sherlock Holmes? And lastly, why would she assume that Soneji wasn't just going to kill Megan when he took her? When one of these questions enters your head in the middle of the movie, you can just roll forward, hoping it's explained. When a half dozen stupid plot points are ratting around in your brain and every new scene brings a bigger eye roll, you've got a hell of a problem. I've never been a big Patterson fan, except for the novels he's co-written with other authors. They can be fun fluff and a quick one day read. But ALONG COMES A SPIDER gets tangled in its own illogical and poorly constructed web so quickly it becomes a slog to its stupid finale. Blech. Good work Freeman & Goldsmith, but even you can't save this dreck.

If the Coen Brothers brilliant 1984 debut "Blood Simple" had been informed by the world of Quentin Tarantino, it would likely have looked a lot like STRANGE DARLING . Writer/Director JT Mollner has created a bloody clever, sexually charged thriller that details the final kills of a prolific serial killer. QT style, the film has six chapters and an epilogue that do not unfold in chronological order. The film opens with Chapter 3 and then hops all over the place for a taut 90 minutes that never fails to engage, even when it pushes your boundaries "Blue Velvet" style. Loaded with twists and turns and a relentless style that left me winded, it's got an 80's slasher flick feel but a much better screenplay. Writer/Director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) nailed it when he said "Strange Darling is brilliant, but you MUST GO IN BLIND!" I agree, Mike, so I'm not giving anything away here about the story. Willa Fitzgerald (Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher) is billed as "The Lady". Attractive and personable, we find her in the cab of a truck, talking to her date for the night, "The Demon" played by Kyle Gallner (Smile). The talk is one-night-stand awkward, with The Lady detailing the risks that women take meeting and being alone with a man they've never met. The fact that the truck is sitting outside a seedy Bates Motel like spot in the middle of nowhere is the first spark of tension. A gaudy neon motel sign fills the truck cab with a blue light that feels as low-life as the surroundings. As the chapters flash forward, backward, forward, forward and backward, its a testament to Mollner's screenplay that the viewer is never lost. There are so many layers here that it will take multiple viewings for me to unravel everything hidden in those dirty corners. Watching the film, I saw so much of the Coen Brothers "Blood Simple" unfold. Never a rip-off, just a shared karma, atmosphere and blood lust. There were moments that instantly took me back to seeing Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out" in a packed theater. The red lighting in the bathroom, the QT like devotion to shooting the film on 35mm stock that gives it an unmistakable grain & texture of a past time, the stark lighting in the fields as The Lady runs for her life, there are countless attributes that set this film apart from the pack. I loved seeing Barbara Hershey (The Entity, The Stunt Man) and Ed Begley Jr (Cat People) as aging hippies with a cabin deep in the woods. Their outdoor sound system is a fascinating tiny tidbit in a story loaded with unnerving details. Actor Giovanni Ribisi (The Offer, Saving Private Ryan, Avatar) steps behind the camera to shoot his first feature film as Cinematographer and he knocks it out of the park. His camera moves never felt like he was ripping anyone off, save those De Palma moments that come off as homage. He's got a killer eye that takes STRANGE DARLING to a bloody different level. Composer Craig DeLeon is new on my radar, but his score is unnerving in all the right ways, quietly crawling under your skin with the same power as the moments it justifiably blasts you in the face. As if a Coen Brothers comp isn't credibility enough, there were moments during the hotel room dialogue that felt like Hitchcock in a current form. If "Marnie" and all it's 1964 boundary-pushing dialogue around male & female sexuality and power were created today, sixty years later, this would be it's modern form. The film is built to immerse you in a place you don't want to be, so it wont be for every viewer. Fitzgerald is a powerhouse. Her entire performance is a masterpiece, but its final coda is one of the best moments of the year. Couldn't take my eyes off The Lady, even when I didn't want to watch. Disturbing on every level, Mollner just dragged the summer movie season into a very dark, musty corner and unwrapped a terrifying present. Adult, sexual, violent and disturbing, it's one hell of a twisted ride. STRANGE DARLING gets an A.

Terrifying in 1968 and still haunting today, 1968's ROSEMARY'S BABY is a testament to Robert Evans vision as a young producer and Roman Polanski's as a new wave Director. Hollywood was beginning to see the impact of a new generation, with "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate" baffling older moviegoers and aging studio heads in 1967. A very young Robert Evans was newly appointed as the head of Paramount and worked with schlock b-movie horror master William Castle (The House on Haunted Hill) to bring Rosemary to the big screen. Castle wanted to direct, but Evans convinced him that Polanski, who had never made an American film before, was the visionary they both needed to bring Ira Levin's blockbuster novel to the screen. They went about assembling one of the most eclectic casts in sixties films to portray the residents of The Bramford, a Manhattan apartment building where struggling actor Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) and his young bride Rosemary (Mia Farrow) move. The Bramford has a long history of deaths, murder and witchcraft, all entertainingly conveyed to the couple by their friend Hutch (Maurice Evans of "Planet of the Apes" fame). Their neighbors are certainly an odd lot, led by Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) as Minnie Castavet. Minnie is loud and so are her outfits, she talks loud, she eats loud, Gordon is a full volume blast. Minnie is married to aging man of the world Roman Castavet, played by Sidney Blackmer (High Society) who seems to bond very quickly with Guy. Rosemary isn't so sure of the older couple and likes the young woman Terri (Victoria Vetri) that the Castavets have welcomed into their massive apartment. Rosemary updates the Central Park West apartment, growing more weary of her intrusive but seemingly caring neighbors. Tragedy strikes yet again at The Bramford with an untimely death. Rosemary begins having nightmares about her neighbors and a horrifying, tangible dream in which she is raped by Satan. When Rosemary finds out she's pregnant, the Castavets insist that she see their friend Dr. Saperstein (Ralph Bellamy) the leading obstetrician in New York. 'Don't Worry!" Minnie says, "he'll give you the friends and family rate!" Guy's career suddenly explodes and he's rarely home. Rosemary becomes increasingly suspicious that her elderly neighbors and husband have sinister designs on her baby. Farrow is fantastic in a role she calls her career best. Fresh off her role on TV's "Peyton Place", she proves to be a movie star. Gordon won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Minnie. You can't take your eyes off of her. Evans has said in interviews (including on the superb Criterion Collection Blu Ray that I watched) that Polanski was always in trouble with the Studio Heads, but Evans backed him all the way, because the daily footage was brilliant. Hard to argue. Polanski's camera seems to always be positioned at an unexpected angle to keep you a tad off center, adding to the creepiness. He's a master at suspense as well, making you wonder what's in that closet? What are those sounds from next door? Just who IS on Rosemary's side? One scene has a dazed Rosemary walking into NYC traffic and it was shot for real, no stunt people, with Polanski and his hand held camera following Mia Farrow into traffic. They filmed it three times, with Polanski assuring her "Don't worry, no one will hit a pregnant woman!" Based on the sequence in the film, that's true, but barely. He worked many one-take, "camera moving around the building" sequences into the film decades before it became the norm. This was the first time that Polanksi had adapted someone else's work for the screen and his screenplay is remarkably faithful to Levin's novel, lifting entire sequences of dialogue from the book and even following the look and feel of the apartment from Levin's descriptions. Great moments abound. Watch Cassavetes reaction when a very pale, almost gray & gaunt Rosemary feels the baby move, exclaiming "It's alive!", She doesn't notice his repulsion, and neither did I until this time watching it. As you can imagine in 1968, Paramount had no idea how to market a film with this subject matter. Evans worked with a Manhattan Ad Agency who told him that they would create an entire campaign for the film for free, but if Paramount used anything, it would cost them a flat $100k. They created the now legendary poster of the baby carriage on the mountain range against a plain green background with four simple words. Pray for Rosemary's Baby. The rest is history. Audiences flocked to the film, making it a huge hit and an early massive win for Evans, who would go on to produce "Love Story", "The Godfather" and "Chinatown" at Paramount. Filmgoers of all ages have, I would think, heard about "Rosemary's Baby", but it is that rare nearly 60 year old film that holds up as a horror classic on every level. The photography by William Fraker (Bullitt, Heaven Can Wait) is clever and Production Design by Richard Sylbert (Chinatown, The Cotton Club, Reds) nails the stage set creations of the inside of The Bramford. The exteriors of the building are the famed Dakota Apartments in Manhattan, where John Lennon lived and was assassinated in 1980. It's a scary building from any angle. This is famously the film that cost Farrow her marriage to Frank Sinatra. Their relationship was rocky and Sinatra insist she leave the film when production went very long over schedule. He wanted her to star in his film "The Detective" and demanded she leave the film. Evans showed Mia the dailies and told her she'd win an Oscar for Rosemary. She stayed and Sinatra's lawyer served her with divorce papers in the middle of filming a scene several days later. Come on, Frank!! Mia was staunchly Catholic at the time she took the role (that's not her in most of the nude scenes) so not all of Rosemary's anguish needed to be faked! The film is so cleverly constructed that you could debate if the events actually take place or if the entire thing is a figment of Rosemary's imagination. OK, maybe until the last 30 seconds anyway...... Sanity, betrayal, both are in play. Paving the way for "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" to follow, ROSEMARY'S BABY remains a classic worth revisiting. After all these years, it still hammers directly on the dormant suspicion within each of us that wonders if we truly know the people that surround us. Once it taps into that nerve, it never lets go. This masterclass in acting, writing, direction and set design gets an A. Watch for a new series "APARTMENT 7A" on Paramount+ in September 2024. It promises to tell you just what happened in their apartment before they moved in.

Steven Spielberg's first film in the director's chair, 1971's DUEL is one hell of a debut, taking an ABC Movie of the Week (remember those?) to another level. With a terrific screenplay by Richard Matheson (The Night Stalker, I Am Legend, The Omega Man) based on his novel, the story starts quickly and keeps the pedal to the metal. Dennis Weaver (McCloud) stars as business man David Mann, heading out on the California freeway in his red Dodge Valiant for a meeting that he describes to his wife as "very important". I'm not sure where they are meeting, but his drive takes him far off the LA coast into the deserts of California. Along the way, he passes a beat up looking fuel truck that looks like it's on its last wheels. Nothing out of the ordinary, but suddenly the truck flies by him at high speed, scaring the hell out of David, and us, thanks to some great direction by Spielberg. So begins an escalating game of cat and mouse, with the phantom trucker upping the stakes at every turn in the road. The film is cleverly structured, with Weaver's character stopping at a diner in the middle of nowhere to catch his breath. When he looks outside and sees the beat up tanker sitting outside, waiting for him, he begins to suspect everyone in the diner is the mysterious man behind the wheel. Paranoia runs wild. Weaver is excellent as Mann. He goes through every phase from mildly annoyed to terrified as the life and death measure of the situation settles in. As it becomes clearer that the killer trucker means to take him out at all costs, Weaver's flop sweat is palpable. The stunt team is first rate, with the legendary 70's stunt driver Carey Loftin (Vanishing Point, OO7's License to Kill, Against All Odds, Raiders of the Lost Ark) making every inch between the semi and the car scream with tension. Spielberg was only 25 when Universal gave him his first film directing job. Loftin famously asked Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the car's driver, Spielberg told him, "You're a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch." Loftin replied, "Kid, you hired the right man." The sound design team deservedly won an Emmy Award for the aggressive sound mix, way ahead of its time. The truck horn still startles today, as does the absolute ROAR of the truck's engines as it seems to want to devour Weaver and the Dodge. Shot in twelve days on a $450,000 budget, DUEL remains one of the most confident film debuts of any modern film director. After this film's superb response, Universal gave Spielberg the Goldie Hawn film "The Sugarland Express" to direct, followed by a little film called "Jaws". The legend started here. DUEL gets an A. Spielberg fans: Lucille Benson, the Lady at the Snakerama Gas Station also appears as a gas station attendant in Spielberg's "1941". The elderly couple in the car who don't want to get involved when Weaver begs them too, were also featured as a couple in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"!

Kevin Costner's Epic HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CHAPTER ONE is old fashioned, beautiful to look at, sprawling in scale and for me, a worthy entry into Costner's legacy of classic Western films. Over the last few decades, Costner has starred in and/or directed some of the best films in the genre. "Dances with Wolves", "Open Range", "Silverado" and the underappreciated "Wyatt Earp". He's put his money where his mouth is this time out, sinking $70 million of his own money into the HORIZON saga, which he envisions as a four-film story. Sadly, this first chapter did not find an audience in theaters just before the 4th of July weekend, putting the release of the completed Chapter Two in limbo. There's certainly enough story to fill more than one movie. We spend the first 70 minutes of this film's 181 minute running time (coincidentally, the exact same running time as "Wolves") meeting the characters in our tale. Costner doesn't even ride into the film until exactly an hour in! The film tells the tale of American settlers heading west during the Civil War era. To say they are not welcomed is an understatement. Costner has always had a heart for telling both sides of the Old West and at least for the first half of the film, we do see the fractures within the native tribes, with elders wanting to meet with the white men entering their lands. The younger warriors want to exterminate the invaders and protect their land. In the first half hour, I found myself inspired by the bravery of the people leaving everything behind to claim a piece of the new world, and horrified watching the advancement through the eyes of the indigenous children. Sienna Miller is Frances Kittridge, surrounded by her family in a new home in the Horizon settlement. Her world is torn apart when the village is attacked and massacred in a huge scale action sequence well staged by Costner and his production team. The loss of families and children of every age is shocking and the film doesn't shy away from the brutality. Sam Worthington (Avatar) stars as Lieutenant Gephart, a Cavalry man leading the team that comes to the Horizon settlement to help the survivors of the brutal attack. Meanwhile, Luke Wilson is Matthew Van Weyden, leading a massive wagon train across the landscape. A wide breadth of settlers is in the group, including a proper young English husband played by Tom Payne (Prodigal Son) and his wife, who provide some humor in their posh approach to heading West. Jena Malone (Nocturnal Animals) plays Ellen Harvey, who we meet as she shoots a man and kidnaps her own son, escaping into a pioneer town where she relies on young lady of the evening Marigold (Abbey Lee from "Mad Max: Fury Road") to watch her son during the day. The man she shot is the leader of Sykes family, a notoriously brutal name known to any of the settlers. The brothers Sykes, led by Jon Beavers (Sugar, Licorice Pizza) as Junior, in a towering performance that damn near steals the movie, head out to find Ellen at all costs, putting her, her son and Marigold in danger. Meanwhile, Costner stars as Hayes Ellison, a slightly more talkative version of Eastwood's Man with No Name, with his gun at his side and a focus on doing what's right, even if that means killing a man in a split second. Costner is fine here, but I hope that future chapters open up the character to show more layers underneath that ten gallon hat. If the above seems overwhelming from a narrative standpoint, I've barely touched on the twenty or so main characters driving the narrative. My biggest complaint with Horizon is the editing by Costner regular Miklos Wright (Open Range, The Umbrella Academy). I feel like the two of them must have had a massive board in the editing room, keeping track of all the characters, timelines, locations and action. Unfortunately, as a viewer, that matrix isn't available and I found some of the time jumps and movements from storyline to storyline pretty confusing. The acting is fine across the board and the photography of the western landscapes by J. Michael Muro (Crash, Open Range) is jaw dropping. I have never minded long films that hold my interest, and this one did, but my bride found it very long and confusing, an opinion shared by many on its way to $34M at the box office against the $100M budget. Many felt that Costner bit off more than he can chew, but I'm along in the saddle with him and have confidence that he'll weave all these people together into a final Western tapestry to stand alongside his classics. With only 25% of the story presented, it's a bit early to judge the epic. I'll be excited to see Chapter Two, whenever it lands on the big screen. Here's hoping it earns a big enough following on MAX and streaming to build an audience and provide Costner the room to complete his most ambitious film. For me, the full HORIZON is still a long way off, but I give CHAPTER ONE a solid B.