Guillermo del Toro’s first foray into the realm of film noir, 2021's Nightmare Alley brings all of the Golden Age classic charm of the Studio System along with a classic pulpy story (based off of the novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham... as well as the 1947 movie adaptation), which is then fused with his own unique visual style. Following Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a drifter, or is it grifter (after all, this is a neo-noir), with a dark past, he aimlessly stumbles upon a traveling carnival... taking a day’s work, he soon after accepts an offer from owner Clem Hoatley (Willem Dafoe) to join the team – seeing it as the perfect way to disappear from his secret history.
10 Cloverfield Lane is an unusual quasi-sequel to the 2008 handheld found-footage Godzilla-like monster movie Cloverfield. I watched the original in theatres back when I was at University, and it struck me as a rather exciting, large scaled horror movie. The gargantuan scope of that picture is interestingly scaled back to the complete opposite in this loose spin-off.
As you probably read previously, Marcus Ovnell, the writer/director of the outstanding Swedish dramatic thriller The Break-In, explained that his favourite film of all-time was the 1990's classic Shawshank Redemption. Though he said that this was his clear favourite, he also highlighted a lesser known movie as one that I (and others) should watch – the 1999 thriller Arlington Road.
A recent movie that has sadly gone completely under the radar is the 2014 submarine heist thriller Black Sea.
As I sat in the dark theatre waiting for the projector to light up the New York State premiere of The Break-In, a Swedish film written and directed by Marcus Ovnell, I had two things running through my mind . . . and both related to my high hopes for the film. The first was that I had attended a panel discussion featuring Ovnell and Nathan Jacobs (writer/director of Killing Poe) on the continuing influence of Edgar Allen Poe on the world of film. The panel provided a nuanced discussion on the two movies (while also making sure to provide no spoilers of the upcoming showing of either film) and being that I am a gargantuan Poe fan, this had me enthused for the premiere. The second was that I have yet to see a poor film or television show come out of Scandinavia over the past several years (whether it is the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters or television series such as Wallander and Borgen, to name of few).
The last ten years or so have been an extremely exciting time for horror and thriller films coming out of Spanish speaking countries. Whether a classic from Guillermo del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth), or other greats such as J.A. Bayona’s The Orphanage, Guillem Morales’ Julia’s Eyes or Oriol Paulo’s The Body – to name but a few, these films introduce interesting, unique, original or classic ideas and offer a scary spin on the horror/thriller genre. The Corpse of Anna Fritz adds to this golden age of Spanish language horror thrillers (with a warning that this one pushes the limits more than some of the others).
After looking at an Academy Award winning picture in Casablanca and a best actor in a leading role in Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, it is time to look at a female lead that has taken home the big prize. This will also be the first movie that I have looked at that is an adaptation of one of horror maestro Stephen King’s novels. As those of you who watch a lot of movies will know, Stephen King’s creations usually turn out one of two ways on film – an absolute train wreck or an entertaining and very strong effort; this movie falls into the latter category. By this point, some of you may have already figured out that I am reviewing the 1990 dramatic thriller Misery.