Till, Decision to Leave, Tar, Triangle of Sadness, Halloween Day, Irish Jesus in Fairview and October Horrorfest 2022 on Monday Morning Diary (October 31)

 

 

by Sam Juliano

The completed manuscript of Irish Jesus in Fairview is now in the hands of Rob Bignell, my first-stage editor.  The novel came in at around 160,000 words, which everything considered is rather astounding.  I have taken a break as far as continuing on with the third book, Roses for Saorise, as I do need to be abreast of the editing process of the second book, which also requires the art and the more painstaking second stage editing.  I am targeting late February or early March for the actual publication.  The first book, Paradise Atop the Hudson has now sold over 1,200 copies, which pleases me greatly, especially since that total was amassed over ten months.  The average number of amazon-published books during their entire lifetime is 250 copies.  This second book (Irish Jesus) will be much longer than the first, though at this point I am not sure the number of pages it will turn out to be.  Thanks to everyone for your kind words, support and enthusiasm.  As always, Valerie Clark of Toronto has been offering all kinds of support from day one.

Thanks to those who have submitted ballots for the Top 100 All-Time Greatest film project, which ends on November 9th.  Bill kamberger’s tabulation will be completed a few days afterwards, and it will predate the upcoming Sight & Sound results.

Happy Halloween to all!

“Till,” “Tar,” “Decision to Leave” and “Triangle of Sadness” seen the last two days in area multiplexes.

In an effort to play catch-up after being diverted the past weeks, I employed Friday night and my entire Saturday to see FOUR (4) new releases in the Ridgefield Park and Clifton multiplexes. My 1 to 5 star ratings are as follows: TILL 5.0 of 5.0 ; TAR 4.5 of 5.0 ; DECISION TO LEAVE 4.0 of 5.0 ; TRIANGLE OF SADNESS 3.5 of 5.0. TILL features what I consider to be the premier lead performance by an actress this year by Danielle Deadwyler , who plays the real-life mother of a 14 year-old boy who was tortured, disfigured and murdered in 1955 Mississippi by white racists, who deliberately misinterpreted the Chicago boy’s compliment of a white woman working at a general store, who recalls Mayella Ewell from “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The film’s courtroom scenes are electrifying, and again many of us are reminded why when we hear the state of Mississippi mentioned, our blood boils. The film is beautifully mounted, shot and written, and director Chinonye Chukwu is correct to accentatute the grief-stricken emotions in scenes that will leave you sobbing in your seat. (5.0 of 5.0)

If not for anything else TAR should be commended for its audacious subject of a female classical music conductor, a narcissist -Lydia Tar – who beats to her own drum, stepping on anyone who gets in her way, but she receives the required support from her adopted daughter (Petra). The film features the exploitation wrought by some powerful people in the arts field, and Tar is abusive, though writer-director Todd Field isn’t pointing fingers, he’s just documenting in his fictional account of what is hidden behind the scenes. The film is art house to its core, and I see some Kubrick and Bergman here, both in the psychological interplay and compositional choices. Blanchett delivers a towering performance, which for me is a close second to Deadwyler’s. (4.5 of 5.0)

The Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, is irresistibly entertaining, almost in a Gilligan’s Island sense, but the satire is sometimes overwrought, and the cynicism suffocating. Like director Ruben Ostlund, “The Square” the film eventually overstays its welcome, and it was a curious choice for top film at Cannes, but I still recommend it for its acidic attack on the wealthy, even factoring in its episodic straucture. (3.5 of 5.0)

The South Korean neo-noir, romantic thriller, DECISION TO LEAVE doesn’t pose anything new or revelatory -a detective falling for dead man’s mysterious wife – heck we even saw a variation on this theme in DEEP END, with Tilda Swinton, but despite the sometimes inaccessible and convoluted plot, director Park Chan-wook’s filmmaking skills result in a film that keeps you riveted, even while you are sometimes lost in truly understanding what is really going on. Tang Wei as Seo-rae is extraordinary as the anchor of a multlayered plot, and location-alluring work. The film does cry out for a second viewing, methinks. (4.0 of 5.0)

Jamie Uhler’s stupendous Horrorfest 2022 reviews continue here:

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October Horrorfest 2022 and Irish Jesus in Fairview on Monday Morning Diary (October 24)

by Sam Juliano

The manuscript for the 153,000 word Irish Jesus in Fairview will be sent on to my first-stage editor, Rob Bignell, first thing Tuesday morning, along with my initial payment.

Jamie Uhler’s continuing October Fest Horror project, brilliantly considers ten (10) films this week.

Event Horizon (P. W. S. Anderson… 1997) sci-fi horror

A film I’d seen in the theaters, but not since, was pressed into service in an attempt to cleanse the taste in my mouth and reestablish my appreciation of Laurence Fishburne; after a run-through of the Matrix franchise to get ready for December’s release of Matrix: Resurrections, I’d felt quite fatigued. It’s a franchise that after the great first film and the 2 or 3 great set pieces in the second, more or less becomes quite a slog to get through, and while this is nothing on Fishburne’s Morpheus, or any of the principle players really, they’re just films that become quite laborious to actually sit and watch. Deep Cover, the magnificent 90’s Neo-noir also helped (for those keeping extra score at home, 2009’s somewhat entertaining Armored was also screened), but given my year long commitment to watching Horror and penning the capsule here and there to have a sufficient backlog of reviews done once fall rolled around, I figured a rewatch of Event Horizon necessary.

Much has been said of its overt similarities to the Alien aesthetic, that is to say a plot involving a space crew in deep space either happens upon or is actively searching for a lost ship to only get an alien intruder aboard that slowly works to brutalize all involved. I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence as a cinephile to point out that Alien was itself merely a link in the chain, Ridley Scott’s film borrowed on a well established sci-fi cinematic trope; It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), Night of the Blood Beast (1958) and a 1975 Doctor Who episode (‘The Ark in Space’) chief among them. Plus, from the barest of production values, filmmakers Curtis Harrington (Queen of Blood, 1966) and Mario Bava (Planet of the Vampires, 1965) have also claimed Ridley’s film had their works on his mind during production*. But this also misses another point that Event Horizon and Alien share, how much they leap from science fiction into the world of slasher Horror, the Agatha Christie Ten Little Indians idea where characters are knocked off one by one until just one remains. Halloween then, which arrived a year before Alien, to a boatload of cash seems as important a precursor to them as any 1950’s B-sci-fi work. But then Event Horizon builds a loop, almost becoming a precursor to how Ridley Scott eventually saw the Alien franchise playing out. His human-robot character David (played with brilliant touches by Michael Fassbinder) being the real conduit to the Horror of the world is much like Sam Neill’s Doctor Weir here, who once he finds the Event Horizon, the lost spaceship he helped design to create black holes for light year interspace travel in seconds, is willing to let the dark forces of another dimension control the ship.

The films final third becomes mostly a graphic gore display that I didn’t entirely mind, but I also can’t say that it’s earlier lofty promises were delivered upon either. The story goes that the film as originally envisioned was to land between 2 hours to 2 hours and ten minutes, but the studio took over and exacted a sprinting 96 minute one. Once the film did pretty good in home DVD sales they had an about face and asked for that director’s cut, to only be thwarted given that footage was now gone or would need extensive re-shoots or digital effects overlays. In watching it last night, I liked it enough, but I wonder how much clearer and deeper the premise would be in that extended run-time. It’d allow the interesting ideas of the spinning magnetic portal to better assert itself, placing the gore stuff secondary which I’d imagine would be the proper ordering of thematic subtext. But still, as it stands, it’s not a terrible way to spend a brisk evening, it’s better than you remember.

*It’s a point so vital I thought it serious enough to write a piece on years ago. (https://attractivevariance.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/concerning-the-production-value-derived-opinion-in-the-science-fiction-film/)   

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Irish Jesus in Fairview completion and five fabulous HorrorFest 2022 reviews pn Monday Morning Diary (October 17)

by Sam Juliano

Jim Clark published a superlative essay on Ingmar Bergman’s Thirst, this past week at the site.  The Greatest Films of All-Time ballots continue to be submitted and will be accepted till early November.  Thanks to all who have responded!

After responding to numerous private messages over the past months, I am thrilled and proud to announce that today, October 11, 2022, I have completed my second novel, which is tentatively titled, IRISH JESUS IN FAIRVIEW. (The title could change, but perhaps it won’t; I will sort that out moving forward). The new novel continues the story of Adam Sean Furano, his wife Sarah and his family, and the trials and tribulations they face from late 1972 (when the first novel left off) up until 1980, when this lengthy work ends. IRISH JESUS IN FAIRVIEW is considerably longer than PARADISE ATOP THE HUDSON, and the final projection after the proof-reading and connecting passages are figured in is estimated to be nearly 150,000 words. (55 chapters, compared to the 41 for PARADISE)

New characters are introduced, including a major one, a militantly-devout Polish-American Catholic teenager from Wallington, New Jersey, who is met in Wildwood, New Jersey in the summer of 1974, and soon after becomes a major player in the lives of the Furano family. The boy, Andrzej Wiesnewski, shares some distinct similarities with Adam, and has sustained a tragic past. The behavioral tendencies of young people growing up in the 1970’s are showcased, including the obsession with music, movies, sports, local eateries, drinking, smoking as well as bullying, homophobia, and a trio of controlling women, who each bring varying degrees of that propensity to the men they are connected to. The book’s main character has developed a physical disability from his 1971 accident in Palisades Amusement Park, which adversely affects his self-confidence, and within the Furano family there is a power-play for favoritism that results in unspeakable corruption. The real-life priest of St. John’s, Father Charles McTague plays a major role in this story, and some of his history is woven into the fictional narrative. Also, the authentic arrival of Father Peter Sticco at OLG in 1978 is likewise documented. Once again, local establishments, real people who lived in Fairview and Cliffside Park, the area’s geography, schools, churches, and community events are incorporated in a scene-specific way, but IRISH JESUS is a deeper exploration of the themes that defined the first book, and it disavows the notion that the way one feels early in life will carry over into the future. I’d like to think this is a more polished, intricate and intense work than the first book, but those who read it will have to make that determination. There are some major surprises in this book, but I will leave it at that.

Because the first book sold way better than expected, and continues to sell copies weekly to the very present, I am planning to publish through Amazon once again. It will take two more weeks to write some “connecting” passages, and to painstakingly proofread, and then the book will be sent off to my FIRST STAGE editor. My artist already is preparing his cover work, and then my friend and final-stage editor will commence with his examination. (I have already written three chapters of the THIRD BOOK in this trilogy, tentatively titled ROSES FOR SAOIRSE, but I must now focus on IRISH JESUS before resuming with ROSES. Many thanks to all those who have offered love, support and encouragement.

Jamie Uhler has written five (5) more stupendous reviews for Horrorfest 2022:

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INGMAR BERGMAN’S “Thirst” ‘Something robs me of my will’

 

by James Clark 2022

The Surrealist treasures of Ingmar Bergman’s early films culminate with the film, Thirst (1949). Our approach here will not coincide with the melodramatic saga, so necessary for the young artist’s business. There will be a nucleus, taken  far from the beginning of the text; and then many ironies with their crises; and then the genius of cameraman, Gunnar Fischer.

Believe it or not, there is (and has been, for eons) a significant number of folks who live millions of miles away from their friends. Living beyond the normal, pious hopes. Our protagonist, here, being one of those who has an uncanny energy, unable to put the picture together.  (The famed Surrealists also had problems with coherence. While making serious fun, much was missed.)

We start (and end) with her. We start at the cemetery of her long-dead husband, and its moments that never reached him. Nearby, she was a part of her adolescent’s crisis at a mental hospital, whereby she had smashed a window and left much blood that day. Moreover, and more to the point, there was a multimillionaire financing  the place, who thought he was a medical wizard. (This moment, however, had, for Bergman, also its viciousness angle. Several of these near-war films had been warped in face of a fascist bias. You might argue that the losing side had something to offer. But here, we come upon a sneer for the name, Rosegreen, meant to be attacked. And yet the irony flows beyond.)

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HorrorFest 2022 on Monday Morning Diary (October 10)

 

by Sam Juliano

As autumn forces its way in, attempting to cool down the summer temperatures, we move deeper into October and towards Halloween.  I have been busy finishing up Irish Jesus in Fairview, which is nearly ready for the initial editing stage.  I am almost ready to sign up for the cover art work as well.  This second novel is substancially longer than the first, and will end up between 140,000 and 150,000 words.

Ballots for the All-Time Greatest Films voting can be submitted on this thread or any other future ones.

Jamie Uhler’s Horrorfest 2022 begins this week, after the initial music review lead-in.

Of Unknown Origin (G. P. Cosmatos… 1983) monster/psychological horror

I found during the pandemic that revisiting and refining my idea of the guilty pleasure in movies was a helpful agent to my ever eroding mental health. One film I’ve screened no less than four times over the last 36 months or so is the George P. Cosmatos/Sly Stallone vehicle Cobra (1986). A futurist tale of violent fantasies where eroticism is glimpsed only for the viewer at the slickness of clothed, perfect bodies and cult-driven bloodshed, a film almost made as a 90 minute music video. You know, the sort of thing anyone should theoretically be heavily invested in watching as the world careens ever closer to the brink, chaotically away from anything approaching normalcy. I love it so much that I do what I always do: explore the careers of the chief artists behind the project, as completely as possible. I knew director Cosmatos a little*, he being the director of the ultra-jingoistic and problematic Christ parable Rambo II and the peak entertainment Western Tombstone, a film that when it appears on cable guarantees my butt on the couch for its duration. Next I did Leviathan, a sci-fi Horror that was mostly passable if not for the much better similarly themed Abyss that James Cameron did around the same time. Then there was Escape to Athena, a decent action comedy set in World War II with Roger Moore that is only worthwhile to those that are piqued with ‘action comedy with Roger Moore’ in the description. It does have a tremendous motorcycle chase sequence (Cobra similarly has a wonderful car chase set piece), virtually the reason I’d recommend it at all. Needless to say, I was growing a bit underwhelmed, that is, until I watched Of Unknown Origin.

It’s the story of Bart (Peter Weller), a lawyer who has recently finished renovation on his midtown brownstone home, a beautiful abode for his wife (newcomer Shannon Treed) and young son. It’s a clear keeping-up-with-the-Jones style splurge, the doing only a promised promotion at the firm can really afford. It’s clear his beautiful partner comes from money so he’s trying to make everyone happy, risking it all to put off the gleam that becoming a partner seems as much justified as inevitable. But once his wife and child leave for vacation Bart is left to manage the three floors that also now house a huge rat looking to cause havoc, a problematic addition to his life as he approaches an incredibly busy period at work.

By the time we’re steamrolling into the third reel, Bart’s perviously tranquil, perfect life and sense of self have been thoroughly ravaged. Returning to his most primal state begins to right the ship; professionally he calls his bosses bluff about his future at the firm just as the sparkling patina of his new beautiful, renovated brownstone and polish lawyer dress code are thrown out the window. The final battle is with the beast, as much metaphorical as it is physical, and armed with a makeshift homemade warrior suit of armor he descends to the pits of the house–the basement—where the rat has fully taken residence. In the end Ahab will fight his white whale (the film makes several direct clear references to the Melville novel to promote this reading), the question is if the sea and those he’s previously loved will know (and love) the man they will eventually return to. Or more importantly will he love them?

After screening such an odd duck of a film I sought the opinions of others—have I read the film like others have or is it largely maligned? The most I could gather through the usual online searches is that it’s mostly been relegated to a weird Jaws clone, just grossly inferior as who could take a measly, small rat as seriously as a murderous, near unkillable Great White shark? But this is a lazy, unskilled read, this isn’t just a monster movie, the real Horror is in the fake existence the rat’s presence threatens. Bart has crafted a day to day worth now in need of puncturing, the promise of affluence and domestication a numbing agent that Bart must overcome to kill his adversary and reclaim a real, complete control of his psychological and physical existence. In a way you’d take the lead, the great Peter Weller, an Australian, and pair the film with perhaps Australia’s greatest Horror creation—1971’s gonzo masterwork Wake in Fright—and see an evolutionary tie in double bill. Men going back to the land, wherever that lands, hoping that wherever that leads it is to a higher plane, knowing the Horrors that must be trampled through to get there. Here is total spiritual Horror, a masterpiece.

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Blonde, The Greatest Beer Run and Jamie Uhler’s final musical lead-in to HorrorFest 2022 on Monday Morning Diary (October 3)

 

by Sam Juliano

Incredible as it may seem, we are now into October.  The usual temperatures fluctuations and report of September hurricanes, but otherwise we move forward with an eye toward Halloween, Election Day and beyond, Thanksgiving.

I am still banging away daily at the Irish Jesus in Fairview manuscript, but the end is near.

Top 50s or Top 100’s all-time ballots can be entered on any of our site threads, including this one.

I’m well-aware of the largely mixed-to-negative responses to Andrew Dominik’s new Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde, which I watched on Netflix last night after another decent film recommended to me by a relative. A few close friends have also panned it. Alas, I have to join those who found “Blonde” a mostly riveting, audacious and surreal experience that requires a kind of intimate immersion. I have not seen a more extraordinary performance this year than the one delivered by Ana de Armas as Marilyn, who burns holes in the screen. I’m still taking in what I saw, and I am certainly aware of the charges made against the film as being dehumanizing, exploitative and abortion propaganda. Hmmm. Not buying into any of that either.  4/5

As to The Greatest Beer Run, nothing to write home about, but harmless, occasionally funny film.  2/5/5

Jamie Uhler’s final fabulous musical lead-in to HorrorFest 2002 is below:

September 30 Comus – First Utterance (1971)

Appearing on the eve of the Halloween season, Comus’ 1971 debut First Utterance has become something of a mainstay in my Fall listening appetite, a record of beautiful textures intermingled with scary intensity. Taking their name from the Greek god of festivities and nocturnal celebrations it’s a clue to their Prog/Art rock aesthetic that they mix with acoustic balladry, bordering on genuine Folk Horror. The music moves with a seriousness as if conjured via wayward Pagan seance, Lindsay Cooper’s howling beauty embedding ‘The Herald’ with a trance like lull, planting the record into a swirling descent of demonic madness. Soon, songs are evoking terror for the listener from rape (‘Diana’, ‘Song to Comus’), necrophilia (‘Drip, Drip’) and Old World torture (‘The Prisoner’). The band backs lead vocalist Roger Wootton with flutes, oboes, violins and a litany of 6- and 12-sting acoustic guitars sounding as if Jethro Tull dropped the Hard Rock leanings and instead walked the tightrope of demonic madness from a convent in late Baroque England.

The band that would record First Utterance would begin work on a second record but their uniqueness hurt sales so they’d split shortly thereafter. Eventually reforming with different players for 1974’s eventual follow-up,To Keep From Crying which is a good record too, but the sense of the macabre is lost. Eventually reissues in the 2000’s would catapult the band to their greatest (though still nominal) prominence, as if the spells cast all those decades before had sparked something in the ether, the universe coming around like a generational solstice ready to spring its magic for all within earshot. (reissues add 4 tracks; the single-version of ‘Diana’, and the picturesque, swirling trio ‘In the Lost Queen’s Eyes’, ‘Winter Is a Coloured Bird’ and ‘All the Colours of Darkness’) But, closing the Autumnal records season I thought this one very appropriate to foreshadow the coming Horror season!

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