Dogs Bark

I Don't Belong In The World - - Carnival Of Souls (1963, USA, B/W, 78 min) - - 22 March 2020

Recommended. Quick now: How many horror movies have been made on location in Salt Lake City? Surprisingly, seventy-two, according to IMDb . . . including Porn Star Zombies and the Halloween franchise. But the most memorable - - if you’ve seen it - - must be Herk Harvey’s one and only directorial masterwork, Carnival Of Souls. Adding to the weird tales oeuvre (i.e., Horrors of Malformed Men, Eyes Without a Face, God Told Me To, etc. ), Carnival Of Souls has been expertly restored and featured by the Criterion Collection to bring out the rich, black and white, expressionism of cameraman Maurice Prather. But the true genius of this film is the only professional artiste in the company, Candace Hilligoss (The Curse of the Living Corpse, introducing Roy Scheider!). Ms Hilligoss strikes the perfect balance between lethargic and horrified spaciness to keep us unbalanced throughout. The location, the derelict Saltaire Pavilion, provides a Poe-like dissolution that’s gorgeously macabre.

Bring Them Back Alive - - King Kong (1933, USA, B/W, 104 min) - - 15 March 2020

An essential. It’s ironic that King Kong is the last movie I saw on a big screen before we all went into our undefined period of audience distancing. Over the years, the two re-makes of King Kong have focused on the societal arrogance of trying to control nature. That message is implied more than chest-pounded in the original. Also left unremarked is the fact that every aggressive move Kong (Mighty Joe Young) makes is made to protect Ann Darrow. Did beauty kill the beast, or was it foolish sentiment? Regardless of that, the original King Kong is simply one the best action movies of all time, with a concise pace and story structure that has escaped both of the modern re-makes. The stop-motion animation - - though clunky by modern standards - - takes nothing from the drama. After sixty-five years, it’s good to see the old boy back in front of an audience.

What Matters in Jane Austen? - - Emma. (2020, UK, Color, 124 min) - - 13 March 2020

Recommended. Emma. is the directorial debut of photographer Autumn de Wilde. Jane Austen’s groundbreaking novel is a remarkable biscuit on which to cut your teeth. Although Emma concerns Austen’s usual suspects . . . love, marriage and poor decision making - - all framed by Regency society - - the novel is the first successful use of something called “free indirect style.” This narrative form uses a third-person, omnipotent voice, limiting it to what the character believes to be true. And how do you do that visually? It’s not clear that de Wilde’s Emma., embodied by Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) even attempts that and the results are mixed. The first half-hour seems offensively chaotic, particularly the intrusive, rather twee, musical score. Despite this, Taylor-Joy does represent the character well and nails the pivotal scenes of Emma’s humiliating self-revelations and eventual maturation. Austen created this character knowing not everyone would be pleased. The movie is much the same.

On The Road Wrong - - Queen And Slim (2019, USA, Color, 132 m) - - 9 March 2020

Recommended. Melina Matsoukas, the director of Queen And Slim, is another filmmaker that was often mentioned among the dearth of female Oscar nominations. Although Matsoukas shows promise, this film was actually not that obviously overlooked for an Academy Award, although it’s an entertaining film. Prior to this, Matsoukas made numerous music videos, primarily for Beyoncé. That sort of style shows, as her characters create wonderful individual vignettes that are photographed (Tat Radcliffe, Pride) and scored nicely. I particularly liked the juke joint scene. Given that, this romance-on-the-run story doesn’t really hold together well, with several distracting character and plot inconsistencies, one very gratuitously violent intercut sequence, and an ending smacking of a liberal Clint Eastwood movie. For a self-described, excellent lawyer, Ms. Queen gives herself inexplicably dumb legal advice. Regardless, Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith exchange amusing chemistry and Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo) shines as Queen’s dodgy uncle.

Seasons Of Desire - - Portrait De La Jeune Fille En Feu [Portrait Of A Lady On Fire] (2019, France, Color, 122 min) - - 5 March 2020

Strongly recommended. In another brilliant film helmed by a woman but ignored by 2020’s Oscars, writer/director Céline Sciamma (Girlhood) has supplied the most authentic lesbian love story since Carol. How can a straight, male critic judge queer authenticity? Several ways. Sciamma disposes of the tiresome cliches of dare-not-speak-its-name love and completely avoids any girl-on-girl porn charge . . . the closest thing to a filmed orgasm being one woman’s ecstatic pleasure in the music of Vivaldi (eargasm?).  Thus unfettered, she’s left only with the romance of desire, brief connection and nostalgia. Long minutes are spent with her two actresses simply looking at each other and it’s a credit to the acting skills of Noémie Merlant (Heaven Will Wait) and Adèle Haenel (The Bloom of Yesterday) that the beauty and drama of these scenes holds. The photography (Claire Mathon, Atlantics) is beautiful, too, with rich colors and endlessly deep-focus shots of the Brittany coast