Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things, 1971 – ★★★

One of the earlier AGFA offerings I sank my teeth into. ‘Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things’ is the intersection between a daytime TV movie and a ‘Desperate Living’ era John Waters movie.

The plot revolves around 2 ‘on the run’ murderers Paul and Stanley. The pair accidentally murdered a couple of people in a blind rage and as the film picks up, they’ve both gone into hiding with Paul disguising himself as a middle aged to elderly ‘Aunt Martha’ while Stanley plays the part of her Nephew the idea being that Stanley is in the care of his Aunt Martha.

But both are having problems. Stanley has some psychiatric problems and force him into a blind murderous frenzy whenever a woman wants to have sex with him, and…this is the early 70s, so a lot of ‘free love’ is still floating about. While Paul is struggling to keep his cool, DESPERATELY unhappy with having to play a middle aged old woman and even MORE unhappy that Stanley isnt really even trying to keep a low profile while being tied to him because of the murders.

Things begin to escalate when Stanley starts once again attacking women and ends up bringing home an old friend who’s aware of the pair and may in fact be working against them. With the tension and the bodies mounting Paul decides that the heat is too much, and begins plans to relocate and start again…Though, whether Stanley will be part of those plans is very much up in the air.

The best way I can summize this film is that there are a handful of campy and wonderful moments across the runtime…broken up by a DESERT of inactivity.

The plot itself is engaging, but only on about the same level as a late 60s daytime movie. in fact, it really kind of has a lot of the DNA of one of those films, the only real difference being that it isnt afraid to swear and isnt afraid of getting a bit bloody or dealing with difficult topics in places. But with some light (and I mean *light*) editing, this could have just as easily run alongside Kolchak or CHiPS honestly. And thats kind of the problem.

The plot in and of itself is fine, but it gets bogged down so quickly in the finer detail that after the first 10 or so minutes has happened, we’re stuck wading through kitchen sink drama and ‘freak outs’ that feel threadbear. The marketing for this film suggests a kind of punkish, more gory spin on ‘Psycho’ but in actuality its themes are probably the most controversial than anything you physically see on screen.

The pacing is a little on the slow side and the characters are a bit ill fitting from a development and scope perspective. The whole thing feels a little flat if im honest. That ISNT to say though that their isnt good to be had here, as the campier moments (particularly the interactions between Paul and Stanley, or the murder seqeunces) are, in and of themselves, very entertaining and do prop this thing up as and when required. Its just a shame that the films so good at ramping up into those moments, but not so good and maintaining the tone or pace after the fact.

The ending feels a bit rushed, the character development is slow and doesnt feel satisfying either. Its a film that has its moments, but struggles to really define itself past its initial shock premise.

Visually, i’d say im actually quite impressed. While it isnt exactly the most breathtaking production on earth, it does feel like a competent 60’s/70’s era TV movie, which given some of the absolute rot that the low/no budget era of indie film making gave us (look at Ray Dennis Stecklers Adult career around this time for dross beyond comprehension) this holds it together remarkably well, its a solid competent work that, while maybe a little thin on styalisation, is strong on editing and sequence building and the compositional choices, while a little on the safe side, work and work well.

Performance wise? Really this movie belongs to Abe Zwick who plays Paul/Aunt Martha. he’s phenominal here and utterly EATS any scene he’s in with zest. I loved him, and he pretty much tipped the film from being something I was tempted to clock watch on, into something I knew I had to watch till the bitter end. He really does nail it and is MORE than worth the price of admission.

The rest of the cast though? are not so solid…ranging from overly dry and stiff performances, to turns that feel more like test takes of the actors goofing on set than actual deliveries. its a mixed bag, and your milage may vary as to whether you find these entertainingly eccentric performances, or just border unwatchable ones.

Throw in a kind of stocky sounding score and overall ‘Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things’ just about tips the scale in its favour. I came away not excactly thrilled by the experience, but happy I caught it again and glad I stayed for the stranger moments.

I think this would probably pair quite well as a B-feature to ‘The Baby’ or something of that ilk, its got that kind of trashy vibe, and I think if you liked that movie, you’ll probably quite enjoy this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/sometimes-aunt-martha-does-dreadful-things/1/

by tytdreviews

The 13th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special, 2026 – ★★★

Another year, another ‘Oscar Special’ and, if im being honest…a bit of a mixed bag for me this time around. Greggheads didnt get quite as much Gregg this year as usual. But when he got to deliver his movie expertize it was a crowd pleaser all round.

The fact Tim ‘Amatto’ Heidecker is still walking free is chilling honestly. ESPECIALLY given he’s now making racist kids shows and stealing from the elderly.

In short, needs more Gregg, More Mark, more three stooges and W.C Fields puppeteering and way WAY less Dootle Dots. WE’RE HERE FOR THE MOVIES GUYS!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-13th-annual-on-cinema-oscar-special/

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The Werewolf Cult Chronicles: Vietnam 1969, 2005 – ★½

From what I can find online about this piece, its the middle part in a trilogy of short films titled: ‘The Werewolf Cult Chronicles’. A 20 minute short film set in Vietnam via Stockholm, this is a Swedish horror film that seemingly wants to be ‘Dog Soldiers’ and its a bizarre watch to say the least.

The main reason being that its a short film where you can visually see and hear the budget run out across its full runtime. The opening 5 minutes (while not excactly breathtaking) have solid CG effects for 2004/05, have decent direction and cine, and while the editing is a little ‘explosive’ for lack of a better word, it feels right and looks pretty good.

However, once this opening 5 minute flashback cuts to the present day, the budget seems to shrink and shrink, with costumes looking cheaper and cheaper as the film runs on. the quality of the direction going from ‘stylish vision’ to ‘just about functional’, the amount of cuts shrinks right down, the edit becomes increasingly incoherent. And the special effects, which again, for 2004/05 start strong, end up getting cheaper and cheaper as the film goes on until we end bordering ‘Amazing bulk’ quality CGI and Halloween masks brought from a grocery store.

The plot itself is fairly generic, largely focussing on two soldiers in veitnam learning of a werewolf curse from the 16th century. Its all kind of bland…with Vocal overdubs that start of hilariously awful and end up sounding like someone trying to do an American accent, who’s never HEARD an American accent, But has had one described to them by a Norwegian…

All in all? I dont think its really worth your time. I do feel for completionists sake that I should at least TRY to find the first entry in the series…Just to see if im missing something blatent here…but yeah. Not worth your time, just kind of dull and its said everything it needs to say within the first 5 minutes or so.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-werewolf-cult-chronicles-vietnam-1969/

by tytdreviews

Fata Morgana, 1979 – ★★★½

A bizzare take on a variety performance ‘Fata Morgana’ was curated by Lee Hazlewood and features a variety of Swedish performers doing what they do best…opera and contemporary rock and roll. Its a trip and a half to be sure, with mind melting visual effects basically turning what could have been a kind of mediocre music programme into something that feels positively ‘Adult Swim’ by way of Vic Berger.

Its very lumpy, doesnt always make coherent sense and as soon as I found out that this was essentially a rushed submission to a broadcasters awards ceremony. It all seemed to fall into place that the reason this looked the way it looked is because they essentially rushed a variety performance through and then chucked it to the AV lads and told them to use as much ‘visual effects’ as its possible to use. Bearing in mind this is Sweden in 1979…so the visual effects are on a par with the US circa 1970.

All in all, what I loved from this one, I REALLY enjoyed for its surreal and unusual tone and presentation. What I didnt like, I was kind of bored by. Definitely worth watching at least once if your a fan of Counter culture European culture.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/fata-morgana-1979/

by tytdreviews

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, 2026 – ★★★½

The latest Theroux documentary sees a jump to Netflix and a revisiting to the world of the ‘Manosphere’. around 10 years ago Louis explored the ‘alt right’ pipeline and the manosphere was an element of what he touched on, and now 10 years on he’s back exploring the increasingly bizarre world of ‘male influencers’ and redpill culture.

The whole ‘Alpha Male’, ‘Blackpill’, Looksmaxxing Incel movement is prime material for Theroux, and in his own way he shines a light on what is essentially a LOT of sad and lost souls using their own internalised hatred to try and find meaning in a world thats moved beyond them. They say that a child who is shunned by its village will burn it down to feel its warmth and by the end of this documentary I was left with no real doubt that if any of these Children could read, we would genuinely be doomed.

At this point, I dont feel like its an overstatement to consider Theroux a national treasure, and this documentary is about as formulaeic as its possible to get really for Theroux’s career at this point. He brings with him a calm and gentle persona that enquires looking for the exact moment where he can really strike into the nub of the issue. In many ways, he’s the antithesis of the ‘manosphere’ movement. A voice that cuts through the snake oil salemen…and its clear here they really dont like it.

Do I think this is his best work? no. I feel like this documentary falls down on three counts. I dont feel like it goes deep enough into the movement, its all very surface level and really designed to be more of an introduction to the concept, rather than an overview of the movement as of 2026. I also dont quite feel like this is as scathing as his first visit into this area. The 2010’s version of this documentary felt more ‘plugged in’ and Theroux seemed much more disdainful and willing to go for the jugular on these strange strange men. But here, I think the fact that a lot of these content creators basically threatened to pull the plug on the whole operation if he probed too deep, kept him at arms length rather than allowing him to get to the crux of the issue.

And finally, I just dont really feel like this builds much on Louis’s previous offers as a documentarian. Dont get me wrong, this is some good Theroux material…But after reinventing himself in the 2010s to move away from the more ‘weird weekends’ aesthetic, I didnt really feel any kind of growth or development from him as a speaker that wasnt seen in offering such as his look into Scientology or last years brilliant piece on the Settlers in Israel.

If you’ve been terminally online for the last few years, I dont think this documentary will offer all that much in the way of revelations. But I think this is the perfect thing to introduce a more mainstream audience to the manosphere concept. Especially if its paired up with his ‘alt right’ documentary from a few years ago. As for me? I enjoyed this as much as I can enjoy any Louise Theroux documentary. But I do feel it couldnt quite find its bite. While it does an excellent job of revealing this ‘influencers’ as scared and scarred sad children being hollowed out by the darkest parts of society. It doesnt quite manage to seal things off in a way that felt satisfying to me. I enjoyed this one. But I wouldnt say its his best.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/louis-theroux-inside-the-manosphere/

by tytdreviews

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, 2025 – ★★★★

A nice complimentary piece to Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis Biopic. EPiC is essentially a pseudo documentary/concert film that came about as a result of Luhrmanns research team discovering hundreds of hours of previously unseen footage of Elvis performing in and around his Vegas residency period. The film flows in and out of songs with linking interview narration from the King himself as he talks about his feelings towards being a performer, his personal life and the toll it takes on him.

I always find documentary hard to really comment on, concert films even moreso really…But whats presented here is probably the best Elvis ‘Concert’ film to be released commercially (Not including the comeback special or ‘Aloah from Hawaii’) its imperfect…but its rock solid.

What works here is the editing, which is frankly obscenely good in my opinion. there are segments of the edit here where we weave in and out of different iterations of Elvis singing the same song at different points in the 70s and it flows and moves so effortlessly as to be border faultless. The music mixing is excellent REALLY blowing the dust of these rapidly approaching 50 year old recordings and remixing demos live performances and studio mixes to produce a modern feeling, but respectful of the era set of song mixes that on a good sound system felt like you were watching the concert itself live in person.

The documentary elements are a nice touch and help weave a solid narrative between the Elvis the crowd saw, and the quieter; goofier counterpart hanging out back stage.

It also has to be said that this footage looks immaculate, they mix in some more famous archive footage with the newly restored stuff, but all of it looks incredible, almost as if filmed yesterday and on a big screen, it really shows every fine detail. its really a remarkable work.

As for the not so good? Well…while I do think they did a good job in remastering and remixing the concert tracks, they have a really bad habit of mixing tiny snippets of other elvis songs into the film…but not really developing them or cutting them short. The most notable one for me being a brief moment where they start to play ‘An American Trilogy’ but cut it short before it even really begins. ‘In the Ghetto’ gets similar treatment. And it was frustrating because they are two personal favourites of mine, and to have them play about 20 seconds of them both before cutting to something compeletly different left me aching to see what they could have done with those tracks.

Equally; while the editing for the most part is an incredible work…with ‘Polk Salad Annie’ being a particular highlight for me. Sometimes it feels a little TOO breakneck for its own good, careering around the show and the audience to the point that it becomes difficult to really keep track of what im supposed to be looking at…the random use of psychadelic manipulation of the concert footage as well at times worked out okay…But for the most part just felt a bit cheap and weird…and not in a good way.

But! Overall, I really liked this one. i’ll almost certainly nab a 4k if it gets one, I can absolutely recommend it if your a fan of 70s Elvis, or just like the hits. and I can definitely see myself catching this one again in future. Though…quite HOW they missed out ‘See See Rider’ given it was Elvis’s intro song for a LOT of his concerts is totally missed on me!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/epic-elvis-presley-in-concert/

by tytdreviews