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Nowhere to Swim
A group of teens break into a posh indoor pool to celebrate graduation only to find themselves picked off one by one by a masked killer. This is the plot of 2001's Swimming Pool, a German movie about English speaking international students in Prague. Its 36% Rotten Tomatoes rating is fair but it's a diverting little slasher ( Read more... ) -
Peripheral to Girls
Three women embark on a trip across the U.S. and before the end there'll be tears and occasional laughter. 1995's Boys on the Side is a road movie for people who like Terms of Endearment, a story about three imperfect women who find some kind of meaning in their lives when their luck turns very bad. I'm not sure I'm the right audience for that ( Read more... ) -
The Insurmountable Elementary
I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation season two lately. Although Netflix seems to have a lousy selection of movies these days it still seems to have all the best old TV shows. Most people wouldn't consider the first two seasons of TNG great television, though. I still can't get through a rewatch of season one but I am kind of ( Read more... ) -
The Substance of Paper
Reading about Japanese nationalism and talking to people who long for a pre-World War II Japan, I've naturally found myself thinking of Yamanaka Sadao, the influential filmmaker whose career was cut short when he died in Manchuria in 1938. This was shortly after his final film, Humanity and Paper Balloons (人情紙風船) was released, which is now one of ( Read more... ) -
Find Some Art
Of course I'm in the mood to watch David Lynch projects lately. But what to watch? I first read of his death early in the morning before I went to work on Friday. I had time to watch one of his short films on The Criterion Channel. The Grandmother had actually been on my mind for a couple weeks because some of the students I've worked with have ( Read more... ) -
True Selves and Neil Gaiman
I remember years ago talking to someone about the signs of the Zodiac and I said, "If Scorpios are all promiscuous, that would mean Neil Gaiman is promiscuous, so it's obviously bunk." Maybe Zodiac signs are as reliable as anything else in the media these days ( Read more... ) -
David Lynch
David Lynch has died, just a few days before his 79th birthday. Although details of his death have not been officially announced, it's not hard to imagine what happened. Only last year he announced he suffered from emphysema from years of smoking. The condition prevented him from leaving his home and he was forced to do that very thing due to the ( Read more... ) -
Your Fuzzy Robot Friends
The promise of nightmare inherent in animatronics is somewhat realised in 2024's Five Nights at Freddy's. Based on a popular horror game franchise inspired by those old creepy family restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza, the movie somehow avoids ever being scary but it is kind of a fun adventure ( Read more... ) -
When Angie Harmon was Angie Harming!
Two orphaned kids are adopted by a couple who seem nice at first but, once they get home, things almost instantly sour in 2006's Glass House: The Good Mother. It's the direct to video spin-off of Glass House, a movie critics and audiences hated. The Good Mother hasn't exactly garnered a better reputation so the brand tie-in is a little puzzling, ( Read more... )
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