Diary
April 2026
Stroszek
I was going to jokingly say the last 5 minutes of this film suddenly turn into a David Lynch film but apparent David Lynch himself actually likes this film a lot. Hard to place it into any specific genre but Werner Herzog just lets all these inexperience actors be themselves and it leads to a bunch of disjointed plot lines that all collide perfectly by the climax. It is a mix of German self destruction with American lies that run in the background of this story. It is a tragic comedy of cheated people feeling that America will fix them, woefully unaware of how bad things will become. There is enough small town Wisconsin weirdness to keep this film interesting and like with Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, this is a European director painting his view of America onto a large canvas, showing how the world really views Americana.
Walker
Some things will always be the same huh? Best emotional whiplash in a film; after being inundated with this Peckinpah tribute you get real footage of what's happening and everything just hits even harder. What else can I even say? Alex Cox was a genius.
Zabriskie Point
Today it's the revolutionaries, tomorrow it will be you. There is no common ground with a police state that sanctions killings inside and outside of its borders. There is no common ground with the man pointing a gun down your throat. The time of figurative protests are over, there has to be change or there will be no future. A bleak and desolate film that truly feels like America being boiled down to its essence; decaying desert towns, canyon orgies and bursts of violence and action underscore the film and embeds itself deep within the zeitgeist of modern America. Michelangelo Antonioni is an outsider to America but his intent isn't to make an Easy Rider-esque adventure film but instead transplant the world's vision of America to the big screen. As for Antonioni there is a lot of raw, documentary like acting on display here but he is able to keep everything so engaging by having dialogue that is interesting and prescient. Combine that with incredible visuals and an incredible Pink Floyd score and you have a film that never feels dull. It is a true shame that America has never escaped from the mistakes highlighted in the film and the whole world is still suffering from the utter failure of the American people to fight for actual change.
Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
Society has created rigid codes of conduct, an invisible barrier that we punish ourselves for daily. At the end of the day, human morality is but a blip in our understanding of the universe, if something else were to encounter us in this state it is destined to end in tragedy. Hard to really place this film into any mold, it is almost like a giallo but with existentialist sci-fi that I just really love. Grigori Kromanov plays this perfectly by making everything as unexplained as possible, it keeps you guessing until the final scenes of the film. Insanely good soundtrack and set design here as well, the hotel itself feels like it transcends space and time itself. This film was made for me.
Knife of Ice
More inline with other 70s Argento inspired gialli rather than the other Lenzi-Baker films that were more like sleazy pulp stories, and that ultimately causes this film to lose a lot of what make those other films click because here the cruelty isn't met with any catharsis. I enjoy the moody Pyrenees setting a lot with the fog and the background B-plot of the satanists really adds some fantastic imagery here, but the centre of it all is the murder mystery which I think is decent. This was my favorite Lenzi back then but having matured it is just an above average slasher rather than his other more eye-catching 60s stuff (this doesn't even have a fun sung theme song like the others), there's not a lot going on here.
A Quiet Place to Kill
60s free love comes with its caveats; its name is already a lie since love is now backed by money and nothing else. When a man cheats, they call him a playboy, when a woman cheats, they call her a whore. There is no genuine love since now men are free to throw away their wives after they become too boring or poor, that's free love. This is like Umberto Lenzi's twist on Purple Noon; this is what you get when people at the very top try to fit into a specific mold. Much less claustrophobic than Paranoia, but the Spanish setting it fantastic. The background racing theme also gives this film a nice sort of energy, some great car scenes here. Lenzi really stretches the pulpiness with this one though it gets really nasty, a little too heavy on the cynicism by the end.
Paranoia
A jet-setter yearns to return back to normal society while a hippie yearns to climb up to the top. There is no space to grieve in the modern society especially as a socialite because you are expected to continue a masquerade of societal alienation. There is nothing on the top, trying to regain your golden age is all for naught as that life is far behind you. That's why youthful 60s free love feels so tempting, but in the end all the youth truly want is to replace you. This is an absolutely pitch black dark comedy that mixes itself with giallo sleaze and it is fantastic. Once again Umberto Lenzi makes a circus out of the quarrels at the very top of society, all this perversion and psychological torture is just for money, there is no regard for human existence in the modern age because everyone has been reduced to stereotypical cogs, so your only option is to join this orgy of corruption if you want to live. Has an incredible psychedelic sequence that always scratched my brain since I first watched it. Such a mean film but at the same time you can't help but laugh at it all with all the camp and bizarre happenings that happen in the film. I wish we had more sleazy gialli like this in the modern age instead of the more slasher-y kind because nothing really beats it.
So Sweet... So Perverse
The more I understand how Umberto Lenzi's anarchist politics influenced both his work and giallo films in general (Lenzi was really the torchbearer of these sleazy giallo films) everything really does slide everything into place. This is first and foremost an absurdist class black comedy, how convoluted these murder plots are formed all over money. Doesn't help that the free love movement has ignited repressed cuckholdry in some people, all the more reason to go insane. This has everything I want in a good sleazy giallo; great locales, insane lighting and a 60s dance sequence.
Nobody Waved Goodbye
Makes sense that the Canadian response to Hollywood delinquency films is a pessimistic cinema-direct film. Youthful freedom is built off of ideals from the adult world and once they recklessly try to achieve such freedom it all crashes down, negatively impacting everyone around them. Freedom is a myth and doubly so for the youth, we feed teens lie and wonder why they retaliate when their fantasies are not fulfilled. Don Owen's pseudo-documentary style here really makes this film feel fresh, you cannot really beat naturalist acting with amateur actors there's such a raw feeling to everything. Crazy how much Toronto has changed.
Half-Half-Three-quarters-Full
8 minute psychedelic electronic track over a boat race. What is the correlation? Not sure. Impossible for me not to kinda like it regardless. I love this period of the NfB where they just fund literally anything, some of it stuck and some didn't but you really don't see this anywhere else.
The Killing
The blueprint for the rest of Kubrick's work, you can see elements of this film everywhere from 2001 to Barry Lyndon. America has grown past its wild ages, supposed freedom is now much less comprehensible than it was during the age of the pioneers. The men in this film are meticulous, but their ultimate downfall is ironically the comfort of the modern age; locks on luggage, cops at every single corner, what's even the point of trying anymore? Might be the funniest Kubrick I have seen yet because you have this pitch perfect crime undermined by the most mundane modern invention imaginable it is hilarious how much things derail. You can start to see Kubrick experimenting with longer tracking shot here and it is so simple yet effective, obviously he would be known for these much more in his later career but here it is just perfect. Gloriously pulpy but also examines the ugliness of it all, this is really the predecessor to neo-noir.
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
Reminds me of A Quiet Place in the Country in many ways; the chasing of ghosts from the past and the eventual realization of the exploitation that has continued on from the past to the present. J. Lee Thompson really likes his nonlinear storytelling, even if his films don't quite master it I think it works superbly here with the theme of time alongside the wonderfully trippy ambience of a 70s sci-fi film. Such a down tempo film, one that gets so much more disturbing the more you watch and the more you scratch away the surface, I will try not to go into detail but man does it get ugly. The whole atmosphere is spot on here, the dreary feeling throughout alongside the tender moments here and there that makes you drop your guard long enough for the actual horror to creep up on you. Wonderful dreamy soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith as well, parts of it do genuinely feel ahead of its time. You just have to admire how depressing horror and sci-fi films were during this time period.
The Chairman
The cold war has become less focused on advancements but rather which empire will fall first. Any achievements by the enemy state is meant to be stolen, promises that the inventions belong to the mass is meaningless because at the end of the day, the west still lives off of exploitation and labour, just now it is done by Chinese peasants and intellectuals inhabiting a broken continent forever stuck in a futile proxy war. While the Chinese live with hope everyday by figures such as Mao (who is so exaggerated let also just portrayed as another common man when he finally shows up on screen) the west has no one left, no one to look up to because the promises of advancements all just exists to fuel the pockets of those at the very top. An insanely fun pulp spy film that is too wacky to be a John le Carré adaptation while being way too overtly political to be another Bond film. There are icky elements here and there where the film tries to walk back on being too forgiving of Mao Zedong and the Great Leap Forward, but as it stands it is so much more focus on deconstructing the false promises of the west with the PLA paranoid hysteria is just a fun little sprinkle on top. Unbelievably grand in its scale with J. Lee Thompson diving head first into making this exotica epic film while also employing some more experimental French New Wave editing and an incredible title sequence that features real Great Leap Forward era photographs. A fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith as well. One of those films that has simultaneously aged poorly but also incredibly as time has gone by.
The Big Cube
Imagine going to see your favorite stage actress out of retirement and they start torturing her on stage, just the tip of the iceberg for this movie. Half a 60s teen flick and half a Mexican style giallo psycho-biddy that feels so jarring every time they switch between the old and young characters, I suppose it is fun to see how the boomers used to be the young ones at some point in history. A morality tale about acid that does feel finger waging but also dips its toes into fun psychedelic freakout scenes that are just a delight to watch man. Tito Davison really likes his close ups and rapidly panning camera movements it is everywhere in this film. I mean this is kinda objectively a bad movie with how horrendous the clarity of anything is, but at the same time it is a serious fun camp flick that doesn't really overstay its welcome. Fun stuff.
Electra Glide in Blue
The state benefits from increasingly hostile polarization. The two classes of society has to include the tyrant and the ones who cower in fear. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you become the next target, because at the end of the day, you only serve as a mediator who will ensure nothing changes. A bleak film that to some extent almost feels like a spiritual successor to Easy Rider (love the scene at the shooting range where the cops are shooting at a printed out picture of Wyatt and Billy). They both explore the increasing polarization of America after the waning of the counter cultural movement, but here James William Guercio (his only film which man, what an incredible standalone film) rides the tone with this almost Lynchian fascination of Americana being slowly scratched away to reveal the true ugly weirdness underneath. It has real effective sly comedy, but the real star of the show is the brooding tension that leads to the absolutely jawdropping last five minutes of this film that is pretty much one long shot that lets you soak in all the bleakness of 70s America. Not the mention how incredible this film is framed as well, the desert is presented here with such an existential vastness. How is this not talked about more?
March 2026
Tommy
Did not really go into thematics with my last two reviews so here is my interpretation of the story. I don't think he is literally deaf, dumb and blind, rather he is forever stuck chasing the sun that was taken from him. We see Captain Walker in this film as a bright orb of light and this motif appears throughout the story. He symbolises the ultimate inner peace, ultimate acceptance and understanding of the world around us. It plays into the post-WWII aspects of the film where Britain seemed so desperate to recapture their former glory as the world changed around them. The sun has finally set on the British empire and art and self worth has been altered permanently. Pinball was Tommy's escape and ultimate downfall, in the modern world passion is twisted into commodification. The very thing that built him up just became another fad, very fitting with the rise of new religions during the late 60s as beliefs no longer hold any weight. Its only when he strips himself of the image that was built around him that he is able to finally find peace. The film is steeped in its themes of commodification which is why I remarked in my last interview that this was kind of an adaptation of the Who Sell Out as well. The ads and new media just interjects itself into the film's narrative because all that matters in the end of the day is not what you create or the trauma you endure, but how much of it can be sold.
Tommy
I reviewed this masterpiece before so I can just type anything into this review. Tracks ranked, comment on some of these: 1. Amazing Journey - Incredible, best sequence ever brought to film. 2. The Acid Queen - Might be the most perfect casting in the film. This role was made for Tina Turner. 3. Cousin Kevin 4. 1951/What About the Boy? 5. Fiddle About - Most "made for the fans" scene in the film because the Uncle Ernie leitmotif playing over Keith Moon is like the scariest, most self-explanatory thing ever. 6. Smash the Mirror 7. Welcome 8. See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You 9. I'm Free 10. Sally Simpson 11. Bernie's Holiday Camp - Probably my favorite of the film exclusive tracks 12. Pinball Wizard 13. Sparks - Effective orchestral score 14. There's a Doctor/Go to the Mirror - Funny seeing Jack Nicholson sing 15. Sensation 16. Mother and Son 17. Extra, Extra, Extra/Miracle Cure - Happens at different points in the film but similar enough for me to put them together. 18. Prologue 19. Captain Walker/It's a Boy 20. Champagne 21. Tommy Can You Hear Me? - Not long enough 22. T.V. Studio 23. Eyesight to the Blind - Much better in the album, just not too crazy about Eric Clapton's style. 24. Tommy's Holiday Camp 25. Christmas - One of my favorites in the album but a little underwhelming here. 26. We're Not Gonna Take It - My favorite of the album, my least favorite here. Its really missing the whispers from the album and by the time they get to the chorus there is not as satisfying of a build-up as the album Other notes: I love how this film is basically an adaptation of The Who Sell Out as well with all the fake commercials, fun stuff! "Now he is deaf, now he is dumb, now he is blind" my favorite change to the album because it is just so frank and hilarious. This film mostly works because Ken Russell hated the album so he directs this in the most orchestral, epic way possible to elevate it above rock aesthetics. Almost reminds me of how ELO's Eldorado was made with a real orchestra with Jeff Lynne trying to combat his dad's notion that rock and classical cannot be combined effectively. Nothing can really replicate it, though I might be a little biased considering how much the album means to me, might be elevating this too much is all I'm saying but I do not care. Anyways this is the greatest film ever.
February 2026
Japan's Top Gangster
Not ugly enough to be a good jitsuroku, not poetic enough to be a good ninkyo. This film is more interesting to learn about than to actually watch, as it is pretty much the first film to explicitly confirm how much influence the yakuza had on Toei during this time period. It makes sure to portray the yakuza in the softest way possible and is honestly more of a straight drama than anything. I really enjoyed the brotherhood between Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara, there is an underlying explosiveness that truly pays off by the end. Kōsaku Yamashita really tries to make this story grand and epic, with its sweeping scope and deep soundtrack, and there are great scenes here in there its just missing the edge that I like from these kinds of films, it is definitely very sentimental. Honestly shocked this somehow outperformed Battles Without Honor and Humanity.
The Great Okinawa Yakuza War
An already fragile former nation further torn apart by greed. An independence movement has been thrown out of the window not just because of the outside forces squabbling for land but also the internal scars that pit brothers against brothers. We truly blew it.
The Revolutionary
Politics swayed by impulsive emotions. Although A does believe in a revolutionary cause, more often than not he acts out upon external factors like his failing relationship and suspension from university. His activism ranges from helpful to useless and in the end it doesn't matter. Leftist infighting is the inevitable downfall of any radical thought. The state waits like vultures as people are torn away from each other, the ones that are truly radicalized are the only ones who could barely escape but this arms race favors the state. The feeling of this film is immaculate in what I can only describe as neo-revolutionary gothic. It takes heavy artistic inspiration from revolutionary wars of Europe but transposed onto the modern day in this fictitious nameless free state. The landscape is dotted with technology but it goes barely used, everyone in this film acts like they stepped out of the middle ages and the college town that this film takes place in is dotted with old brick buildings that contrasts with the very American themes in the forefront of the story. Michael Small leans into this with the soundtrack, a mix of psychedelic late 60s rock with medieval instruments. It is unfortunate that this film does end up being a slog to sit through mostly however. It meanders around with various characters that are never given the proper depth and ends up feeling more like an outsider's view of leftist revolutionaries than something more earnest. I think director Paul Williams was in the right direction with some of the effective comedy scenes throughout and the eventual turmoil that really erupts in the last 20 or so minutes, but it feels held back in certain aspects. Still this is an immaculate film, it is a unique experience and I wished there was more like it. The aforementioned last 20 minutes is incredible when the film drops everything and rears into full Pakula levels of discomfort, that freeze frame makes everything worth it. RIP Robert Duvall
