Past seven days

Even though I haven't had a lot of reviews up, it doesn't mean I haven't been watching. Any of these you are interested in?

The Game
Hell Drivers
Monster Squad
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Prince Avalanche
Someone Like Me
Straight Time
Things to Come
Try and Get Me (aka Sound of Fury)

Morning Glory

Here's an ex-prisoner movie, but since it's based on a book by LaVyrle Spencer, you know it has a romantic bent. It's a made-for-TV film.

Set in the Depression era on the brink of World War 2, just-paroled Will Parker (Christopher Reeve) looks for work, and answers an ad from widowed farmer/mother Elly Dinsmore (Deborah Raffin, also a co-writer on this one). She’s known as a recluse and is looking for a “husband” to help her tend her farm, especially since she is pregnant.

Elly warns Will to keep away from the bee colony, it was managed by her dead husband and she considers it a danger now, but Will insists it can be a moneymaker and defies her. He becomes part of the family, first in a marriage of convenience, but then as these films often do, it turns into a more meaningful relationship with Elly.

The sheriff (JT Walsh), local waitress/loose woman (Helen Shaver) and other narrow-minded citizens make trouble for Will. Nina Foch plays a kindly librarian who knew Elly when she was younger and continues to be a helpful friend. In an unusually non-villainous role, Lloyd Bochner is a lawyer who helps them when Will is arrested for a serious crime.

Past seven days

"North & South" is a popular name for an artistic work.  The one I watched this week is a 1975 adaptation of the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, and stars Patrick Stewart and Rosalie Shanks as the romantic leads.  Another version was made in 2004. Don't confuse it with the epic American miniseries that takes place during the Civil War era.

Also a highlight was the Oscar shorts compilation made by an organization called Shorts International.  In the past few years they've been screening in theatres, just a couple months prior to the Oscar awards ceremonies, the nominated short films for that year and some honorable mentions to make a full program.  This particular DVD had some live-action and animated winners from the past several years, some I remember watching at fests and others I have not seen before.  They were all pretty good.  Shorts International also is a partner in the Shortstv cable channel (known by several different names, depending on your geographic location) where you can watch other short films and related product.

Antibodies
Lee Daniel's The Butler
Europa Report
The Mudge Boy
North & South
The Oscar Winning Short Film Collection
The Parade
Your Beauty is Worth Nothing

Past seven days

An oddball selection this week.  The disturbing Compliance, a movie based on a manga, singer Bjork's first movie (based on a Grimm's folk tale), and Shawn Carruth's Primer and Upstream Color.

Compliance
The Juniper Tree
Kabluey
Primer
Thermae Romae
Upstream Color

The Good Herbs

I saw this Mexican film during last year's Latino Film Festival.

A single mother Dalia works at an alternative radio station, and has a mother who is a botanist. The story is divided in sections with placecards showing different plants with remedies for symptoms that refer to the events or emotions of the film.

Dalia often writes down phrases or words she hears that she finds interesting, sticking them on her wall or in books or even writing on the walls themselves, which later is reflected in signs she posts for her mother to remember what things are when the older lady begins to suffer from Alzheimer's. Her mother's quick decline leaves Dalia at a loss of how to help her and Dalia becomes more and more frustrated.

Past seven days

The last week was the majority of the 3rd French Film Festival, with my last being the based on real story thriller, 11.6, starring Francois Cluzet.  Although during the fest there were a few films starring some recognized French-language talent, such as Diane Kruger, Jean Reno, and Romain Duris, there were some more experimental films such as Carre Blanc and the artistically thoughtful Wings of Desire which I've never seen.

11.6
Cockneys vs. Zombies
In a World...
The Maid
She Loves Me Not

Near Dark

Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young cowboy, picks up a pretty girl, Mae (Jenny Wright), whom he thinks he can charm into having sex. When she panics as the sun comes up, he promises to take her home, after a kiss. She obliges, and in addition bites his neck. Later as he begins to get sick, he is abducted by Mae's "family," some rogue vampires (Bill Paxton as the wild card Severen, Lance Henrickson as the leader Jesse) who are not too happy to find he is a new member and not just a meal.

Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) tries to find him, thinking he's out joyriding. Caleb at first is confused as to his physical state but doesn't want to leave Mae, even if she is not as vulnerable as he first thought she was.  Essentially, Caleb wants to have it all--the girl, to have a life in the daytime, and to be rid of Mae's violent and twisted family.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.