FILM FRENZY

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie (Photo: Warner)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

BARBIE (2023). The Barbenheimer phenomenon may have seemed silly to many, but the results were anything but. Instead of cannibalizing each other by opening theatrically on the same day (as is often the norm), a synthesis was generated between Barbie and Oppenheimer, with the respective filmmakers supporting each other’s movie, the Internet going wild with meme after meme after meme, and audiences turning out in droves for both. None of this would matter if either picture wasn’t worthy of such hype and attention, but that’s happily not the case, as both Oppenheimer (hitting the home market November 21) and Barbie work like gangbusters. Oppenheimer is arguably the better picture but Barbie is arguably the bigger surprise, with writer-director Greta Gerwig and co-scripter (and longtime partner) Noah Baumbach creating a colorful confection with some sly bite underneath. Margot Robbie stars as the most stereotypical of all the Barbies residing in Barbieland, living a perfect life until thoughts of death begin to crowd her mind. To deal with her fragile mental state as well as with the physical flaws that are racking her body (cellulite, flat feet), she’s advised by Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to travel to the real (our) world to set matters straight — she’s joined in her odyssey by Beach Ken (a riotous Ryan Gosling), who’s used to being docile in Barbieland but discovers another viewpoint in our world. The laughs are plentiful and the set design is eye-popping, but what makes Barbie truly work is its deft tackling of such themes as existential crises, toxic masculinity, feminist self-worth, overarching capitalism, and the dangers of both the patriarchy and the matriarchy (the latter a key point conveniently ignored by detractors).

Extras in the 4K + Digital edition consist of six making-of featurettes.

Movie: ★★★½

BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959) / SKI TROOP ATTACK (1960). A month after it debuted with its Blu-ray double feature offering of The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews (both 1959, and both made by the same hands), the Film Masters label returns with another logical twofer, this one showcasing two movies shot back-to-back by that prolific penny-pincher, Roger Corman.

Monte Hellman was a Corman discovery years before he helmed the 1971 cult fave Two-Lane Blacktop, and he made his directorial debut for Roger with Beast From Haunted Cave. Charles B. Griffith had already penned a dozen titles for Corman before this picture, with The Little Shop of Horrors and Death Race 2000 still to come. Both Hellman and Griffith were able to use their limited resources to create a movie that belies its ultra-low budget with inventive and atmospheric direction and a storyline that effortlessly makes the switch from crime caper to horror yarn. Filmed and set in South Dakota, it finds a gang of bank robbers plotting to use the services of an unwitting guide (Michael Forest) to help them escape after pulling the heist — alas, a fearsome creature that resides in a nearby cave changes their best-laid plans. The wispy special effects actually work to the film’s benefit, and it’s interesting to note how the creature cocoons and feeds on its still-living victims in much the same way as a more famous monster that was first introduced in a 1979 Ridley Scott classic. Forest makes a stalwart lead, Sheila Carol is effective as a moll, and that’s Frank Sinatra’s cousin Richard Sinatra as the paranoid hoodlum.

Corman wasn’t about to use his Dakota locale for only one film, so he grabbed Griffith and the same actors to quickly shoot Ski Troop Attack, this time opting to serve as director himself. In this World War II adventure tale, Forest plays the leader of a group of American soldiers causing mayhem behind German lines. This one’s fairly routine, with little to distinguish it from other low-budget WWII flicks of the period, although there is an interesting sequence in which the Yanks find themselves taking shelter in the cabin of a loyal German Frau (Carol).

Beast From Haunted Cave is offered in its 65-minute theatrical version and a 72-minute extended cut with additional scenes filmed exclusively for its television airings. Extras consist of film historian audio commentaries on both Beast From Haunted Cave and Ski Troop Attack; a piece on Corman’s production and distribution company, The Filmgroup; a still gallery and the original theatrical trailer for Beast From Haunted Cave; and newly constructed trailers for both movies. Oh, yes, there’s also a hidden Easter Egg for Beast From Haunted Cave, if you click on the beast itself on the right side of the menu page. A booklet is also included.

Beast From Haunted Cave: ★★½

Ski Troop Attack: ★★

THE BEST OF TIMES (1986). Small-town schmuck Jack Dundee (Robin Williams) has spent the past 13 years haunted by the fact that he dropped what would have been the winning catch against a — make that the — rival high school. He ultimately decides he wants to restage that game, and he tries to convince former high school quarterback Reno Hightower (Kurt Russell), both men’s incredibly patient wives (Holly Palance and Pamela Reed), and the rest of the townsfolk that it’s a dandy idea. Here’s a “feel-good” movie more likely to make one “feel-annoyed” by the utter predictability of it all, and it leans on its underdog card so strongly that I suspect most viewers wouldn’t care if Jack again dropped the winning pass in the climactic rematch. Part of the problem is Williams, whose performance doesn’t exactly rely on his usual shtick but also doesn’t quite result in a genuine characterization, either. Russell fares better, and Reed and Palance fare best (I’ve liked Reed ever since her stellar turns in 1980’s The Long Riders and 1983’s The Right Stuff and always wished she had had a more prominent career). Director Roger Spottiswoode and screenwriter Ron Shelton had successfully teamed up for the excellent 1983 political thriller Under Fire, and Shelton was two years away from writing and directing arguably the best sports movie of all time, Bull Durham — here, both men are merely treading water with a painless but predigested piffle.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by Spottiswoode and Shelton, and theatrical trailers.

Movie: ★★

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD (1926) / PICCADILLY (1929). Those film fans who believe silence is golden should take to these two ambitious efforts from the golden age of silents. With one picture hailing from Hollywood and the other from Great Britain, these movies each feature a formidable performance from a unique actress.

After uncredited bit parts in a handful of films, 19-year-old Janet Gaynor landed her first major role in The Johnstown Flood, a dramatization of the 1889 Pennsylvania disaster that killed over 2,000 people. Gaynor plays the teenage Anna, who’s hopelessly in love with engineer Tom O’Day (George O’Brien) even though he has a fiancée (Florence Gilbert). Tom’s the only person who realizes that a poorly maintained dam runs the risk of collapsing, so of course the town’s elite ignore his warnings. (This same plot was employed — far less compellingly, I might add — in the TV movie Flood!, reviewed last week as part of the new Irwin Allen: Master of Disaster box set.) The special effects are astounding, with a particular highlight finding Anna atop her horse and staying just this far ahead of the rampaging waters. Gaynor is excellent — over the subsequent two years, she would star in three movies (Sunrise, 7th Heaven, and Street Angel) that would collectively earn her the very first Academy Award given for Best Actress.

Unlike Gaynor, Anna May Wong was already acting steadily in Hollywood by 1926; unfortunately, she was forced to play small, stereotypical parts since she was a Chinese-American working in a racist, anti-miscegenational country (and industry). She elected to head to Europe, where she found stage and screen success in England, Austria, and Germany. One such hit was Piccadilly, wherein she plays Shosho, a Chinese dishwasher at a London nightclub. Abruptly fired by owner Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) after she’s caught dancing for her coworkers, she’s rehired when he decides to build a novelty act around her. Mabel Greenfield (Gilda Gray), however, doesn’t care for the idea — as the club’s main attraction as well as Valentine’s girlfriend, she feels threatened on two fronts. Piccadilly succeeds not only because of the presence of Wong but also because cinematographer Werner Brandes manages to capture early-20th-century London in all its nocturnal resplendence and cityscape swagger.

Extras on The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray from The Film Preserve and The Maltese Film Works include archival audio interviews with O’Brien; a discussion of the film’s special effects; footage of Gaynor at the 50th Annual Academy Awards in 1978 (where she and Walter Matthau presented the Best Actress statue to Diane Keaton for Annie Hall); and galleries of historical photos taken after the flood. Extras on the Piccadilly Blu-ray from Milestone and Kino include film historian audio commentary; the introduction to the 1929 sound version of the film; and footage from a panel discussion on Wong.

The Johnstown Flood: ★★★½

Piccadilly: ★★★

THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH (2022). The French flick La nuit du 12 was the big winner at this year’s Cesar Awards ceremony, scoring a handful of prizes, including Best Film. Like two other movies based on actual crime cases, Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 Memories of Murder and David Fincher’s 2007 Zodiac, it’s more about the process than the result: Those seeking closing catharsis won’t find it here, since it’s made clear up front that, as with those other films, the killer is never identified and caught (although, in the case of Memories of Murder, the culprit was eventually IDed years after the picture’s release). If The Night of the 12th isn’t quite as gripping as its predecessors, it’s still an accomplished procedural that also looks at gender dynamics that intrude in such matters. One late night, the young and lovely Clara (Lula Cotton-Frapier) is doused with gasoline and set afire by a masked man. It’s up to Yohan Vivès (Most Promising Actor Cesar winner Bastien Bouillon), the youthful head of the crime squad, to solve the grisly murder, assisted by troubled veteran Marceau (Best Supporting Actor Cesar winner Bouli Lanners) and a handful of detectives who spend more time making jokes about the killing than actually investigating it. The fact that all the suspects are past boyfriends lends an air of misogyny and male condescension to all aspects of the case, leading the lone female investigator (Mouna Soualem) to note that it’s interesting that most sexually motivated crimes against women are committed by men and then subsequently investigated by men. This is strong stuff, even if the movie doesn’t quite know how to wrap up.

The DVD also includes the 2018 French short film Harbor.

Movie: ★★★

PALMETTO (1998). The surprises may be minimal, but there’s still plenty to like about this zesty neo-noir throwback to the crime pictures Hollywood used to toss out back in the 1940s. In adapting James Hadley Chase’s novel Just Another Sucker, director Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum) and scripter E. Max Frye (Something Wild) have concocted a durable thriller that only grows outlandish during the finale. Woody Harrelson plays Harry Barber, a newspaper reporter who has wrongly spent the last two years in prison because he tried to expose the rampant corruption that exists in his Florida hometown of Palmetto. Finally back on the streets, he feels life owes him something, and it’s this attitude that allows him to get mixed up in a tawdry scheme in which a cool blonde (Elisabeth Shue) plans the fake kidnapping of her stepdaughter (Chloë Sevigny) in order to bilk money from her wealthy (and much older) husband (Rolf Hoppe). The plot evokes everything from Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window to Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat, meaning seasoned film fans won’t be caught off guard very often. But the pleasures come in the slight modifications to noir conventions and in the inspired casting: Shue, usually tapped to play good girls, gets to vamp it up as the slightly eccentric femme fatale, while Gina Gershon, a tough cookie in such films as Bound and Showgirls, plays Harry’s supportive girlfriend.

The only Blu-ray extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★

RED DRAGON (2002). Manhunter, Michael Mann’s 1986 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, is superior to Brett Ratner’s 2002 Red Dragon, but the contest is closer than one might imagine. This version works largely due to the efforts of scripter Ted Tally (who won an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs) and a dream cast. Anthony Hopkins is again the star attraction, essaying the role of Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter for the third time. Set before the excellent Silence and the execrable Hannibal, this one begins with the good doctor being captured by FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton), who’s later asked to track down a serial killer (Ralph Fiennes) carving up entire families. Graham needs help on this case, and he’s soon forced to seek advice from his old nemesis: the unflappable Hannibal, imprisoned in that cell that has become almost as familiar a setting as Archie Bunker’s living room and Norman Bates’ hotel. Lecter is a supporting character, meaning this hasn’t been designed to merely function as a one-man-show for a grandstanding Hopkins — on the contrary, Lecter serves the story, not the other way around. Hopkins’ scenes opposite Norton reverberate with an unsettling intensity, as do the interludes between the killer and his blind sweetheart (Emily Watson). Fiennes and Watson are especially good, bringing a palpable sense of internal damage to both their individual and joint scenes.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Ratner and Tally; an isolated score with audio commentary by composer Danny Elfman; a making-of piece; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★★

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY (2007). A broad send-up of music biopics like Walk the Line and Ray, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story stars John C. Reilly as the title character, a dim-witted rube who becomes a country superstar and then must contend with the usual trappings like fame, sex, and drugs. Co-written by Judd Apatow (scripting with the film’s director, Jake Kasdan), this spends so much time dutifully tracking the clichés inherent in these types of films — and then offering mostly predictable comic riffs on these clichés — that a certain by-the-numbers stagnation begins to settle in. Still, that’s not to say that some moments don’t connect: A sequence involving The Beatles demands to be seen if only for the opportunity to catch Jack Black cast as Paul McCartney(!), and I love the string of scenes in which Dewey gets introduced to increasingly harsher drugs. And for a soundtrack that’s meant to send up actual country, rock, and R&B hits, the songs are a surprisingly durable bunch that will doubtless play just fine away from the screen while blaring from the musical device of one’s choice. For a novelty Christmas gift for that friend or relative who seemingly has everything, the CD’s probably not a bad way to go.

The “Hard As Steel” Blu-ray Steelbook edition contains the theatrical version (96 minutes) and the director’s cut (120 minutes). Extras include audio commentary by Reilly, Kasdan, Apatow, and executive producer Lew Morton; a making-of piece; deleted and extended scenes; and song demos.

Movie: ★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM … FOR HALLOWEEN

THE WOLF MAN (1941). “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” The best werewolf movie ever made also gets my vote as the finest film in the entire Universal series (edging out 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein). Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Lawrence Talbot, who returns to the Welsh estate of his father (Claude Rains) after having spent the past 18 years in America. While wooing the local beauty (Evelyn Ankers) one evening, he gets bitten by a werewolf and eventually succumbs to the curse himself. Like most of the Universal crop, this intelligent and sophisticated picture unfortunately sports a brief running time (70 minutes), but the screenplay by Curt Siodmak nevertheless manages to pack the proceedings with all manner of intriguing developments, including discussions on the duality of man as well as the place of superstition in a God-fearing world. Jack Pierce’s werewolf design is superb, and, in addition to Chaney, Rains, and Ankers (all exceptionally well-cast), the strong roster includes Ralph Bellamy as the local constable, Bela Lugosi as a doomed fortune teller, and Maria Ouspenskaya as the gypsy woman who attempts to help our unfortunate hero.

Movie: ★★★★