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sunset boulevard. [another day, another movie: noir #4]

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, noir, scott • 2 min read

This is the first film of the month that I’d already seen before, but decided to revisit for noir month. On no fewer than a whopping 26 of the official lists compiled at iCheckMovies, Sunset Boulevard isn’t just one of the most celebrated noir films of all time, it is one of the most celebrated films of any genre or type. In the opening we, along with our narrator, follow police to a murder scene on Sunset Blvd. We find a body in a pool, the camera appearing to rest at the bottom of the water, shooting up at our victim. From there our narrator, the victim himself, takes us back to tell us his sad, deranged, ghoulish story.

Darkly and sarcastically funny at times, the film plays as much like a horror film as it does like a noir, with former silent film megastar and Cecil B. DeMille cohort Gloria Swanson delivering a chilling performance as the mentally unhinged former silent film megastar and Cecil B. DeMille cohort Norma Desmond. The story takes place mostly in a huge, decrepit 20’s era Hollywood mansion in which Desmond keeps herself hidden from the world, with an organ that plays by itself when the wind blows through the pipes. Surrounded by photos of her youth, Desmond is desperately trying to cling to immortality. It’s as if she wants to be Dracula, but isn’t actually immortal, making her creepiness pathetic rather than terrifying. Her butler is a bizarre sycophant, an Igor type. And the entire film is narrated by a dead man. Horror themes abound.

The performances of Swanson and her butler, played by Erich von Stroheim, are also unapologetically informed more by horror than noir. It’s somewhat like times when great comedy is funnier because the actors play it like a drama, although in this case it is a great noir film in which some of the actors play it like a horror movie, yet only the actors playing characters in the weird little make believe world of Norma Desmond, into which our protagonist is pulled by his own mild greed.

Unlike any film I’ve ever seen, and featuring iconic lines that rank among the most famous in film history, (such as the film’s most famous line, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”) Sunset Boulevard is singular, not only as film noir, but within film history.

Also, Buster Keaton (among others) plays one of Desmond’s bridge partners, as an unnamed former silent film great. Just a little wink, you know, for the fans.

 

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night and the city. [another day, another movie: noir #3]

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, noir, scott • 1 min read

Another day of noir, another fateful tragedy. Night and the City is a film that wasn’t on my radar at all before making the list for this month, which is exactly why I love doing things like this. Featured in the Criterion Collection, it is an American film, but shot on location in London. It seems pretty common to erroneously call this a British film. It’s a 20th Century Fox film with American stars and an American director. However, the internets are full of people listing it as great British noir. There actually is a British version which is five-minutes longer, features an entirely different score, and apparently had a happier ending, but Dassin said the American version is closer to what he actually had in mind.

As seems to be the case with many of these films, there is an interesting story behind the camera as well. In the case of The Night and the City, director Jules Dassin was blacklisted during production, and wasn’t allowed on set for editing or to oversee the score.

The film itself is the story of a man too desperate to make a name for himself and live “a life of ease and plenty” for his own good. He’s cocky and delusional enough that he never seems to realize how pathetically over his head he gets himself until events are screaming out of control.

Starring noir mainstays Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney (neither of whom have made their final appearance this month), the film transcended any of my expectations. It was wonderful, aside from featuring the worst lip-synched song performance in the history of the universe. Maybe that had something to do with Dassin not being allowed on set for that audio work. The cinematography was my favorite of any of the films so far (although there were several impressive shots in Hitchcock’s Notorious to be sure). You could watch this film on mute and still get your money’s worth, especially during the final 30 minutes.

Three days in, and so far noir month is even better than I’d hoped.

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notorious. [another day, another movie: noir #2]

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, noir, scott • 2 min read

One of the most exciting things about this upcoming month of all things classic noir is the remarkable talent involved. It wasn’t a true genre, but instead a stream of films with a particular mood, themes, or generally dark worldview. However, it was enormously popular, and it seems just about everyone wanted to get their hand in, often multiple times. Thus, after Bogie for day one, day two upped the ante with Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains (you probably know him as the Vichy Captain from Casablanca).

As a brief aside: I’m still a noir novice, it’s an extremely difficult type of film to nail down, so you often find contention as to what counts as a noir and what does not. There are the easy ones, like, Maltese Falcon, Sunset Blvd., Double Indemnity. The films in that mode are so iconic as noir films, and everybody agrees. However, beyond the easy ones, I am still incapable of deciding what is and isn’t film noir. The primary source I am using to sidestep this problem is the They Shoot Picture, Don’t They noir list: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn’t They? 250 Quintessential Noir Films (1940-1964). It’s a compilation of the most cited films in noir history during that era, based on TSP’s research. You should check out the linked article if you want a helpful primer on film noir. TSP loves noir movies so much, making it a really enjoyable resource.

Anyway, I mention that because I never would have guessed that Notorious counted as a noir film if it weren’t selected by TSP. It is also listed on the wikipedia page for film noir as one of the four consensus noir films by Hitchcock (along with Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, and The Wrong Man).

Suffice it to say, I still have a lot to learn, and I love it.

Notorious is a story of post WWII espionage. Alicia Huberman’s (Ingrid Bergman) father has just been convicted of treason for working with the Nazi’s, but knowing she is loyal to the great old USA, she is approached by the perfectly handsome T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to get chummy with her father’s Nazi friends to thwart any plans they may have. The two fall in love on their way to Brazil, which is where the Nazi’s are hanging out, only to discover that her mission involves seducing an old friend of her father’s. He’s pissed she’s willing to do it, she’s pissed he didn’t ask her not to, and we set off on a dangerous story of lies and betrayal. Good times.

The film is on 19 official lists on iCheckMovies, has been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry, and has been selected (separately) by both Time and Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 greatest films of all time.

You should watch it.

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high sierra. [another day, another movie: noir #1]

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, noir • 1 min read

Noir fest is underway! Huzzah!

Who better to kick things off with than quintessential noir star Humphrey Bogart? That’s right, no one.

High Sierra is the story of Roy Earle, a bank robber who gets pardoned from prison as the film opens. Turns out, he was pardoned because a mob boss greased the wheels of the system so that Roy could perform a heist at a resort not far from LA. That is where our noir action takes off.

This was Bogart’s first big lead role, as before this he was just a supporting actor. See that poster above? Yeah, you see that correctly, he doesn’t have top billing! So, he made the most of his big break, bringing to life a character the audience could care about (believing he really just wanted a simple life back on the farm with a nice girl) while also loving every second when he flipped the badass switch (believing that though he was short in stature, he was the laaaaaaast mobster you wanted to piss off by running your mouth or being rough with the ladies… careful, he just might hit you with his gun, that’s his move). This film kicked off one of the most iconic careers of film history.

As noir films go, it has much of what you would expect. Sure, missing was the smoky rooms, the rainy and shadowy streets, etc. Yet, it still had the tragic twists of fate, the awful wages of crime, there’s even a dog that embodies the danger looming for our protagonist.

Minus the inexplicable three minutes of racism, it was a solid start to noir-fest.

 

 

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noir month. [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, scott • 2 min read

It’s been a really long time since I’ve done one of my traditional movie genre months. Or, as they came to be called in time: Another Day, Another Movie. I’ve loved the hell out of it every time I’ve done it, and it is time I resurrected the habit. It began with the shorter Halloween Movie Fest, which is a ten to fourteen day event where I watch one or two scary-ish movies a day in preparation for Halloween (side note: I didn’t do a Halloween Movie Fest last year, but I’m bringing it back in 2012 for anyone who wants to join me).

Doing that for the horror(ish) genre was so fun that I decided to try other genres, some for an entire month. I’ve done Westerns, Post-Apocalypse, Time Travel… that might be it. It’s time for another one.

I’ve decided, in the last hour while I sit here procrastinating, that I’m going to watch at least one noir film a day during the month of July.

I’ve decided to focus only on ‘classic noir’ from the 40’s and 50’s to make it easier to choose which films to watch. I’ve made a list of 32 movies, and I plan to watch all of them next month. I decided to only allow myself four that I have already seen, with 28 brand new experiences. I compiled the list using a combination of IMDb’s Noir list and They Shoot Pictures’ Quintessential Noir list. I’m not familiar with all of the titles, so I’m taking it on faith that they all belong in a noir list.

Here is the list, beginning with the four I’ve already seen:

  1. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
  2. The Big Sleep (1946)
  3. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
  4. Double Indemnity (1944)
  5. The Killing (1956)
  6. Touch of Evil (1958)
  7. Les Diaboliques (1955)
  8. Strangers on a Train (1951)
  9. Ace in the Hole (1951)
  10. Notorious (1946)
  11. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
  12. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
  13. White Heat (1949)
  14. The Lost Weekend (1945)
  15. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
  16. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
  17. Gilda (1946)
  18. Out of the Past (1947)
  19. The Big Heat (1953)
  20. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
  21. Mildred Pierce (1945)
  22. In a Lonely Place (1950)
  23. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
  24. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
  25. The Killers (1946)
  26. Pickup on South Street (1953)
  27. Deadly is the Female (1950)
  28. Leave Her To Heaven (1945)
  29. High Sierra (1941)
  30. The Naked City (1948)
  31. Scarlet Street (1945)
  32. Night and the City (1950)
The list is in no particular order so far. I normally try to schedule movies, as much as Netflix allows, based on when folks can join me for their favorites/movies they’ve always wanted to see.
Any noir takers? Any you’re just downright pissed I left off the list? Anything else?

 

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the year of kurosawa, or, my 2010 in movies.

By • On • In another day. another movie., lists of 2010, scott • 3 min read

Here they are, all 200 movies I watched this year.

Here’s the key, in case anyone cares. I promise it’s not as complicated as it looks.
(#) Movies I watched in the theater.
[#] Movies I’d never seen before.
E# – Movies Emily watched with me
B# – Movies Brian watched with me.
Movies I watched more than once this year.
Favorites (These underlined films cannot be movies I saw this year for the first time, or movies I have only seen once, they have to be movies that have been able to stand up viewing after viewing, and still keep me coming back for more.)
*Best movies I’d never seen before. (It doesn’t matter when these movies came out, I saw them for the first time this year, and they were awesome.)

Another Day, Another Movie: Time Travel, Westerns, Halloween Moviefest

*1. Into the Wild [1] E1
2. Time Bandits [2] B1
3. (500) Days of Summer – E2 B2
*4. The Fountain [3] E3 B3
*5. Timecrimes [4] B4


6. Planet of the Apes (1968) [5] B5
7. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure [6] B6 E4
8. Back to the Future II – B7 E5
9. Primer – B8 E6
10. Donnie Darko – B9 E7
11. Gone Baby Gone [7] E8
*12. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs [8] E9
13. The Bourne Identity – E10
*14. All The Real Girls [9] B10


*15. The Hurt Locker [10] B11 E11
16. The Quick and the Dead [11]
17. No Country for Old Men – B12
18. Wordplay [12]
19. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus [13] (1) E12
20. The Bourne Supremacy – B13 E13
*21. Moon [14] B14
22. Inglourious Basterds – B15
23. The Bourne Ultimatum – B16
*24. Junebug [15] E14
25. Up – B17 E15
26. Defiance [16] B18 E16
27. Run Lola Run [17] B19
28. The Invention of Lying [18] B20
29. Paranormal Activity [19] B21
30. Whip It [20] E17
*31. Shutter Island [21] (2) E18
32. Equilibrium [22]
33. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
*34. Blood Simple [23] B22

35. The Informant [24] B23 E19
36. Raising Arizona
37. Gentlemen Broncos [25] B24
38. Alice in Wonderland [26] (3) E20
39. Magnolia – B25
40. Good Hair [27] E21
41. The Departed – E22 B26
42. Big Fan [28] B27
*43. Mad Hot Ballroom [29] E23
44. Cape Fear (1991) [30]
45. Man in the Chair [31] E24
46. O’Horten [32] B28
47. More Than a Game [33] E25
48. A Serious Man [34] E26 B29
49. Confessions of a Superhero [35] B30
50. Roman Holiday [36]
51. W. [37] E27
*52. How to Train Your Dragon, 3D (4) E28


53. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
54. Adam [38] E29
*55. Kick-Ass [39] (5) E30 B31
56. Iron Man – E31
57. The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights [40] E32
58. Rushmore – E33 B32
*59. MirrorMask [41]
60. Kick-Ass (6) B33 W1
61. Desperado – B34
62. Fantastic Mr. Fox – B35 E34
63. Iron Man 2 (7) [42] E35
64. Zombieland – E36 B36
65. An Education [43] E37 B37
66. Sherlock Holmes – E38 B38
67. Cold Souls [44] E39
*68. Yojimbo [45] B39
*69. A Fistful of Dollars [46] B40
70. Stagecoach – B41
71. Sanjuro [47] B42
72. For a Few Dollars More [48] B43
73. The Searchers
*74. About Schmidt [49]
*75. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [50] B44


*76. Seven Samurai [51] B45
77. The Magnificent Seven [52] B46
78. The Professionals [53] B47
79. Unforgiven – B48 E40
*80. Shane [54]
81. True Grit [55]
82. Hang ‘em High [56]
83. Hombre [57]
*84. Toy Story 3 (8) [58] E41
85. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – E42
*86. Dead Man [59]
87. Blazing Saddles
88. Knight and Day (9) [60] E43
*89. Rashomon [61] B49


90. The Outrage [62]
*91. Once Upon a Time in the West [63]
92. High Noon – B50
93. The Wild Bunch – B51
94. 3:10 to Yuma – B52
95. Duck, You Sucker [64] B53
*96. The Outlaw Josey Wales [65] B54
*97. High Plains Drifter [66] B55
98. Pale Rider [67] B56
99. Serenity
100. Shutter Island – E44 B57
101. Hot Fuzz – B58
102. We Are Wizards [68] E45
*103. Half Nelson [69] E46 B59
104. Crazy Heart [70] E47
105. Black Dynamite [71] B60
106. Art & Copy [72] E48
*107. Mystery Team [73] B61
108. Quantum of Solace – E49
109. The Thing [74] B62
110. Youth in Revolt [75] E50 B63
*111. The Road [76] B64
112. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [77]
*113. Inception [78](10) E51


114. Book of Eli [79]
115. Pirate Radio [80] E52 B65
*116. Delicatessen [81] B66
*117. My Neighbor Totoro [82]
118. Inception (11) B67 E53
119. Metropolis [83]
120. Green Zone [84] E54 B68
121. The Crazies [85] B69
122. The Prestige – B70 E55
123. MST3K: Diabolik – B71
124. Rudo y Cursi [86] E56 B72
*125. Ran [87] B73

126. M [88] B74
*127. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World [89] (12) E57 B75
128. The Last Station [90] E58 B76
129. It Might Get Loud [91] E59 B77
130. Mulholland Drive [92] B78
131. The Hidden Fortress [93] B79
*132. The Good The Bad The Weird [94] B80 E60
133. Greenberg [95] B81 E61
*134. The Band’s Visit [96] B82 E62
*135. The Young Victoria [97] B83 E63
136. The Godfather – B84 E64
*137. Ikiru [98] B85

138. The Hobart Shakespeareans [99] E65
*139. Humpday [100] B86
*140. High and Low [101] B87

141. Date Night [102] E66 B88
*142. The Town [103] (13) E67 B89
143. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
144. The Godfather: Part II – E68 B90
145. Where The Wild Things Are – E69 B91
146. Predator [104] B92
*147. Brazil [105]
148. MacGruber [106] B93
149. Let The Right One In – B94
*150. [REC] [107] B95
151. Brotherhood of the Wolf [108]
152. Slither [109] B96
153. An American Werewolf in London [110] B97
154. The Girlfriend Experience [111] E70
155. Dawn of the Dead (1978) [112] B98
156. Pontypool – B99
*157. The Social Network [113] (14) E71


*158. The Devil’s Backbone [114]
159. Bram Stoker’s Dracula [115] B100
160. Comedian – B101
161. Monster House [116] E72 B103
162. Nosferatu [117] E73
163. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – E74
*164. The Fly [118]
165. Shaun of the Dead – E75 B104
166. Dead Snow – B105
167. Babies [119] E76
168. RED [120] (15) E77
*169. Dark City [121]
170. Splice [122] B106


171. Due Date [123] (16) E78
172. Get Him to the Greek [124] B107
173. How To Train Your Dragon – B108
174. Toy Story 3 – E79 B109
175. OSS 117 – Cairo: Nest of Spies
*176. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One [125] (17) E80
*177. Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal [126]

178. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One (18) E81
*179. Tangled [127] (19) E82
180. Avatar
181. A Christmas Carol (2009) [128] E83
*182. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [129]
*183. Manhattan [130] E84 B111
*184. I’m Still Here [131] E85 B112
*185. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – B113
*186. Tron: Legacy [132] (20) E86


187. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – B114
*188. True Grit (2010) [133] (21) B115
189. Love Actually – E87
190. Man on the Train [134]
191. Salt [135] E88
192. Easy A [136] E89
*193. Cronos [137]


*194. The Jerk [138]
195. The Great Escape [139]
196. Spies Like Us
*197. The Big Sleep [140] B116
*198. Black Swan [141] (22) E90


199. Rumble Fish [142]
200. The Other Guys [143] B117

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all the rest. [halloween moviefest, 2010.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 3 min read

So, without going into great detail, because I don’t feel like writing about it, I got really sick and spent most of the last few days sleeping. I was able to get the movies in, but was unable to write about them. Thus, like last year’s post, the rest of the films I watched for HWMF ’10 will get a short treatment here.

Day Nine: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)


The good: Francis Ford Coppola’s freaky side. Gary Oldman being awesome. Anthony Hopkins as the most awesomely hilarious Van Helsing ever.

The bad: Keanu Reeves being Keanu Reeves. Sometimes it was a little too far into the campy side for me. Also, I thought sticking so closely to the epistolary form of Stoker’s novel hurt the narrative flow. Oh yeah, and the success of this film at the box office is largely responsible for the production of Dracula – Dead and Loving It.

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Day Ten: Monster House

I queued this one from Netflix because of a pretty solid voice cast, the involvement of Dan Harmon (creator of Community), and a decent showing on Rotten Tomatoes. There were definitely a few moments where I laughed out loud, but that’s about all I have to say about this one. Underwhelmed.

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Day Eleven: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens)

The classic silent horror film which influenced everything to come after it. There isn’t much to say about it that hasn’t already been said.

From a movie-lover’s viewpoint, it’s impressive to watch this movie and see how it is still used by horror directors, and directors in general, as inspiration. Although, call me uncultured, but I do still have trouble getting into silent films. There are just so many huge leaps in translation of storytelling technique that I have trouble making. I get why the acting has to be so over-the-top and falsely emotive, I get why the text panels have to be up on the screen for an hour, I even get why the pacing feels confused and erratic by later standards in film. I get all those things, I just still have trouble getting by them and getting into the film and story itself.

Still, Count Orlak, the Dracula based villain, is pretty fucking creepy for 1922.

I won’t sit down and watch it for fun, but it’s not hard to see why this movie is a big deal.

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Day Twelve: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Nothing new here. We own this one, so I’ve seen it several times.

How do you not love this movie, or any Wallace and Gromit film for that matter?

Curse of the Were-Rabbit has everything: cheese, amazingly bad puns, hilarious sexual innuendo (mostly vegetable related) that stays vague enough that you won’t feel bad watching it with your kids, the cutest bunnies in movie history, Gromit, and the smarts to make fun of the metaphors normally played with in the werewolf sub-genre (that is, before Twilight went and spoiled everything for a few years).

If you haven’t seen this movie, I accept your apology, just try and have it watched before Thanksgiving and we’ll just pretend this never happened.

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Day Thirteen: The Fly (1986)

I threw this one in because it was one of those sci-fi horror classics I’d never seen because it came out when I was four years old. We’ve had some trouble in the mail-forwarding department, so several of the films I’d been sent from Netflix haven’t shown up yet. Thus, I fell back on the trusty instant queue. I sure am glad events transpired the way they did.

This movie was stupendous! Jeff Goldblum’s transformation into Brundlefly was hugely entertaining, albeit in the grossest possible way.

Cronenberg did such a great, uncompromising job of sticking to what the film was, a ‘scientist turned monster’ movie. They never wasted any time outside of their purpose, it stayed focused in a way films normally don’t. Also, I’m not really sure how the monster effects didn’t seem terribly outdated by today’s standards, but it was as creepy, gross, and disgusting today as I’m sure it was in 1986. More often than not, scenes that were a big deal in the 80’s make us laugh now. Yet, there were several scenes in The Fly that made me jump, or led to an audible “Bleh, that’s nasty!” on my part. That’s pretty freaking impressive.

Also, it’s the movie that gave us the line, “Be afraid, be very afraid.” That’s gotta count for something right?

Gooooo, team Cronenberg!

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Day Fourteen: Shaun of the Dead

I watch this movie every Halloween, and usually once or twice between then as well. It’s one of my favorite movies ever, and seeing it theatrically back in ’04 was when I discovered and fell in love with Simon Pegg, which wound up paying tremendous dividends in terms of my continual entertainment. He’s like the Prime Minister of geeks (the loving awesome things sort, not the biting the heads off of birds sort).

Also, I soooooo want this.

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Day Fifteen: Dead Snow

This one was on last year’s list, and I’ve already written about it in a number of places, including here. If you can stand the blood, you should watch this movie, it’s loads of fun.

So, there you have it. Another successful Halloween Moviefest in the books. I’m still looking for suggestions for 2011. What are your favorite related films?

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recommendations.

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

So, I get excited about things way in advance, and I am already starting to think about Halloween Moviefest TwentyEleven. I was hoping everyone out there on the interweb might have some recommendations for Halloween appropriate films to watch next year.

I had a lot of fun with the 30 Westerns in 30 Days, so maybe I could even make next October an entire month of Halloween Moviefest.

Help me out, folks.

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‘the devil's backbone,’ day eight. [halloween moviefest, 2010.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

I love Guillermo del Toro’s imagination! He has an amazing ability to use dark, scary, and even violent themes and stories to inspire hope and give glimpses of redemption in an ugly world. This is true not only in projects he wrote and directed himself, like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone, but also in projects by others which captured del Toro’s imagination so that he chose to produce and attach his name, like The Orphanage.

Movie number eight this year is the aforementioned film, The Devil’s Backbone. Our first and only ghost story this year. It takes place when a young boy is placed in an orphanage in late 1930’s Spain. As he tries to adjust to his new life by making friends, dealing with bullies, and looking for parental figures in his life, he also has to deal with the fact that not all of the other people at this particular orphanage are, technically speaking, alive.

The film is another example of Guillermo’s knack for brilliant, compelling, original storytelling. After watching the movie, it is clear to me that del Toro is quite taken with the concept of childlike innocence and imagination being the only salve, or perhaps just the only sane response, to the evil things that happen, and horrible people who live in the world. This is one of the most common themes that seem to pop up in del Toro’s work, most notably in the titles listed above. This theme is front and center in The Devil’s Backbone, as is the setting of the Spanish Civil War, which is also the setting of Pan’s Labyrinth. This setting makes clear the presence of huge, powerful events creating a storm in which children can do nothing but try to survive, without ever really understanding all the turmoil into which their world has been thrust.

The movie isn’t scary, but it is highly engaging, and I would recommend it to all of you out there in the internets.

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‘pontypool,’ day seven. [halloween moviefest, 2010.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

Last year, when we started the very first Halloween Moviefest, I hoped I would discover some scary[ish] movies that I actually liked. What I didn’t realize was that I would actually discover some of my favorite overall movies ever. I probably can’t rightly say that my favorite film from last year’s HWMF was Let The Right One In because Pontypool was every bit as good.

I kid you not, this movie is really, really good. Adapted by Tony Burgess from his own book, this Canadian film takes place on a cold February morning in Pontypool, ON, CA. We begin with morning radio host Grant Mazzy, on the phone with his agent on his way to work. He has an odd encounter with a woman on this dark, snowy morning, framing everything that is to come next. The entirety of the rest of the film takes place in the small church basement from which the radio station broadcasts as the scene of a zombie apocalypse unfolds in Ontario.

Through the accounts of listener phone calls, some surprise guests, a police scanner, and Ken Loney in the “Sunshine Chopper”, the events taking place outside slowly take shape for Grant and his two colleagues.

The film is smart, understated, brilliantly acted (Stephen McHattie’s delivery of every, single line is perfect, he carries the entire film), and has a wildly original and brilliant cause for the zombie outbreak that I’ll let you discover for yourselves. Seriously though, discover for yourselves. Watch this movie!

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