Rack and Ruin

In your prototypical revenge movie, something heinous happens, after which the protagonist spends the rest of the narrative trying to exact vengeance upon the person/people who committed the act... but in this curve-ball of a thriller, Blue Ruin (2013), written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), that is not the case. Following the struggling Dwight (Macon Blair – Green Room), ever since his parents were murdered, he has been living a form of homelessness out of his beat up, rusting 90s Pontiac Bonneville. Almost as silent as a monk, the first conversation he has had in some time is when he is notified that the man put behind bars for killing his parents ages ago is getting released.

Ah, Death, sometimes known as the Grim Reaper, has been depicted in so very many unique ways, with the most traditional being of the lineage of Victor Sjöström – who made the silent horror film The Phantom Carriage (1921)... which then inspired his protégée Ingmar Bergman (who watched the feature every year – usually on New Year’s Eve) with making his classic Black Death plague set film The Seventh Seal (1957). Having a laugh at that always winning Reaper, the 2011 horror comedy short The Coldest Caller, written and directed by Joe Tucker, is a four minute humour-filled foray into one such harrowing scenario. Exhuming some fun in a Monty Python-like sketch (specifically Monty Python’s Meaning of Life), when the ominous list-carrying Grim Reaper (Noel Byrne) – your typically towering, hidden gaunt figure dressed in all black, arrives on the cozey doorstep of one Mrs. Evans (Sheila Reid), the punctual old lady almost seems like she has already been waiting for him all day.

When it comes to car chase scenes, the one that is always highlighted, and for good reason, is from Peter Yates’ 1968 action thriller Bullitt starring Steve McQueen... but some eight years later, the city of San Francisco was replaced by Montreal, Quebec in this little known Italian production with quite the epic speedy sequence of its own, Shadows in an Empty Room (1976), directed by Alberto De Martino. Fusing this touch of Bullitt with a Dirty Harry style storyline – hence why it is called Blazing Magnum in some markets (including the UK), while also including a hint of the ever popular at the time 70s giallo for some murder mystery elements, the narrative follows gritty, hard as nails Ottawa cop Capt. Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) as he dispatches some bank robbers in his own city... before getting the tragic call that his much younger sister, Louise (Carole Laure – Sweet Movie), who lives in Montreal, has died under very suspicious circumstances.

Sometimes a movie doesn’t fit nicely within a genre box. In today’s case, the film touches on bizarre sci-fi dialogue, brings forth some satirical dark comedy, plenty of drama and thrills, and centers on a crime... in other words, it’s another unique vision from Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster; The Favourite) – titled Bugonia (2025). . . inspired by the 2003 South Korean motion picture Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan. Falling down the rabbit hole with Teddy (Jesse Plemons – Hostiles; Game Night) and his autistic cousin/helpful sidekick Don (Aidan Delbis – an excellent amateur casting of an autistic man), they have done copious amounts of research on the recesses of the internet into an alien species called the Andromedans – that are supposedly secretly residing amongst us while pulling the puppet strings.

It’s hard to believe that the Christmas comedy Just Friends (2005), directed by Roger Kumble, is celebrating its twentieth anniversary already this year. Not a big success at the box office at the time (only earning 50.9 million), it has slowly built a bit of a cult status over the last two decades. Though not received particularly well by critics at the time either, its joyous comedy, romantic elements, and Ryan Reynolds centred ensemble cast make for a most entertaining watch each and every holiday season.