Movieline Online

With all due respect to published authors, master painters and struggling ceramicists, there’s a reason why film is the most impactful art form of the modern era. Let’s face it, if archeologists had a choice between studying a clay pot from an ancient civilization or a 90-minute movie from the same, they’d choose the movie every time.  Film captures the era in which it was made like no other form of creative expression. But it’s up to the  filmmaker  to point the lens in the right direction. Pim de la Parra’s  Wan Pipel ( 1976) manages to capture a country in transition, where social and political evolution are occurring so quickly even its own population can’t keep up. Returning to his home country of Suriname to console his dying mother, Roy (Borger Breeveld) finds it an exciting change from his studies in the Netherlands. The food, music, clothing and a Hindi nurse named Rubia (Diana Gangaram Panday) entice him to extend his stay indefinitely.  But ...

As the Monty Python expression goes, “ And now for something completely different!”  Even by Radiance’s eclectic standards, their release of Claude Faraldo  Themroc  is in a category all its own. A stoop-shouldered satire of French working-class ennui, the film has all the crude charm of an SNL skit stuffed inside a farcical Maysles man-on-the-street documentary with not a single word of comprehensible dialogue ever spoken. Caught up in the tedium of blue-collar industry, our main character (unnamed but we’ll go with Themroc) has a public restroom epiphany, embracing his primal urges, quitting his job and storming back to his apartment block whereupon he constructs an open-air “ cave”  in which to live out his dream of masculine simplicity.  Food, sleep and sex become the end-all-be-all of his existence, shacking up with his submissive sister/daughter (again, unclear) and any other female turned on by his primitive lifestyle.  The authorities assi...

Director Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s  Steppenwolf  (2024) is playing with dynamite, incorporating modern and classic film iconography while attempting to comfortably (or very  un comfortably at times) revive an almost extinct film genre: the Euro-western.  Filmed in the barren expanse of Kazakhstan, this is a near-future frontier just as dangerous as anything in the Sergio Leone / George Miller playbook. Yerzhanov’s canvas may be a bit more confining, less operatic in execution, but still fascinating in the attempt. Wandering an unexplained war zone full of criminals and dirty cops, Tamara (Anna Starchenko) is searching for her son, a task made even more challenging by her mental and verbal disabilities.  She crosses paths with Brajyuk (Berik Aitzhanov), a professional torturer on loan to the police, who has a mysterious agenda of his own.  The duo scavenges their way across the landscape in hopes of achieving their goals…and settling some scores. F...

Asian cinema has long gravitated toward masculine tales of yakuza, drifters, and martial artists who solve problems with typically violent flair. But women take the spotlight in the latest releases from 88 Films:  Lady of the Law  and  Gate of Flesh . Beyond that, the similarities end, as each film tackles its material from vastly different angles. Jumping on the 1970s Hong Kong trend of female action heroes,  Lady of the Law  (1975) stars Shih Szu as a straight-faced, straight-edged enforcer whose only vulnerability is a kind heart that balances her lethal skillset. Tasked with bringing a serial rapist to justice, she discovers her prime suspect is a childhood acquaintance—framed for the crime. But will the truth come out before her swords are drawn? A fairly standard wushu adventure, this one delivers all the expected superhuman leaps and dazzling swordplay. What elevates it is Shih herself, especially during a final boss battle staged on a tightrope. Her trad...

Prison movies are their own particular breed of cinematic experience.  Like a lot of genres, they’re flexible enough to encompass a variety of emotions: inspirational ( The Shawshank Redemption ), meditative ( Birdman of Alcatraz ) or exploitational ( Midnight Express ).  But often the most engaging films aren’t those about coming to terms with life on the inside; instead it’s the raw determination to get back  outside .  Director Sadao Nakajmia’s  The Rapacious Jailbreaker  (1974) is one long toboggan run of escapes, murders, mistakes and arrests set on repeat. Imagine the relentless energy of  The Road Warrior  set within the Japanese prison system and you’re on the right track. Sentenced to a 20-year stretch for murder and burglary on a job gone wrong, Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata) isn’t content to wait for good behavior.  His first breakout sets the stage for a series of escapes (some carefully planned, some merely convenien...

Hong Kong wuxia and kung fu films were immensely successful at home and abroad, but that doesn’t mean they were above a little creative pilfering now and then—especially given the breakneck pace at which they were produced. Director Chang Cheh was one of the Shaw Brothers' most reliable and prolific filmmakers, responsible for somewhere between 90 and 100 films, including the popular Venom Mob series of the 1970s. Eureka’s latest Blu-ray double feature,  The Magnificent Chang Cheh , presents two titles that—while not quite bookending his career—offer sharp case studies in his varied oeuvre. The Magnificent Trio  (1966) leans heavily on the structure of Japanese samurai films. In fact, as critic James Oliver notes in his liner notes, it’s an unofficial remake of 1956’s  The Three Outlaws . Here, a swordsman (Jimmy Wang Yu) agrees to protect the residents of an overtaxed village from a corrupt official. Recruiting a pair of honorable warriors along the way, the trio ta...