Dogs Bark

Delightfully Bad Robot - - M3GAN (2022, USA, Color, 102 min) - - 14 January 2023

Recommended. To be sure, there is nothing deep about M3GAN - - newcomer Gerard Johnstone’s (Housebound) blockbuster horror flick - - and the plot is kinda dumb. There’s a slight nod to the fear of screens replacing human friends, parental subversion, and Frankensteinian arrogance but this is only used to disquiet the audience, not sermonize. The boss of M3GAN is M3GAN - - as she clearly knows - - and she animates the true horror. With a face resembling the nine-year-old Scarlett Johannsson (can’t wait for the SNL skit!) and the patience of Hannibal Lector, she is the ultimate enfant fatale. I never stopped rooting for her. Like all great horror, there’s a black underbelly of humor to the script . . . never allowing the audience off of the meat hook of disturbia. Fortunately, with the exception of M3GAN’s “owner,” Cady (Violet McGraw, Black Widow), most of the characters range from vile to just stupid so the mayhem seems OK.

Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter is Nuts! - - Don’t Bother To Knock (1952, USA, B/W, 76 min) - - 8 January 2023

Strongly recommended. For most Marilyn Monroe fans, Niagara is her best film noir, probably because of MM’s characterization as a sizzling femme fatale. The smart money is on Don’t Bother To Knock with no reliance on her innate sexiness . . . only her thespian chops. She is a hottie here, but it’s her psychosis, channeling her mentally ill mother, that makes her scary herein. And Marilyn also exudes the debilitating fragility that only she could summon for a part. Second-billed to Richard Wydmark (Kiss Of Death) - - who’s sane (but just a heel) - - and his loopy laugh making Monroe seem dangerous by association. Added in is the premiere of Anne Bancroft (The Graduate), singing a couple songs, and a wonderful spot for Elisha Cook, Jr (The Maltese Falcon). Brit Roy Baker (A Night to Remember) helmed the picture. Supposedly, MM drove him mad, too . . . until he saw the finished film.

The Hapsburg Flip - - Corsage (2022, Austria/German, 114 min) - - 6 January 2023

Recommended - - For various reasons, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Sissi, is the most filmed aristocrat of all time. Romy Schneider (The Cardinal)  played her ad nauseum. Supposedly, the lady was beautiful and stylish but why another film version this year? Filmmaker Marie Kreutzer (The Ground Beneath My Feet) gives her middle finger to that complaint and presents a point of view that is interesting, relevant, and delightfully strange. The responsibility for justifying all this sits on the lovely shoulders of Vicky Krieps (Hanna), who build upon her enchanting performance in The Phantom Thread to establish an Oscar-worthy turn, her performance enhanced by the love of the camera and generally lyricism of Judith Kaufmann (Two Lives). Many of these shots are breathtaking. Also worth noting is the performance of little newcomer Rosa Hajjaj as Archduchess Marie Valerie Mathilde Amalie, aka, Sissi’s beloved daughter. She gives us the ultimate mom-crashed offspring.