One of the greatest fake ‘live’ programmes ever broadcast, 1992’s ‘Ghostwatch’ really is the high watermark for the ‘faux live broadcast’ genres. Initally broadcast on BBC1 in 1992, those who tuned in a few seconds late, or tuned out a few seconds early would have completely missed that this was a drama.
Echoing the vibes of the 1930’s ‘War of the world’ broadcasts, the premise is that ‘Ghostwatch’ (Presented by several of BBC 1’s ‘faces of the channel’ for the time, including Michael Parkinson (national treasure), Craig Charles and Sarah Greene) was a ‘halloween’ special looking into paranormal activity, with Sarah, Craig and a crew examining a house that has been cited as having high paranormal activity (think; the ‘Enfield’ case) with one particularly malevolent spirit called ‘Pipes’ causing havoc to the family of a divorced mother and her two kids.
As the broadcast goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that a paranormal force MAY WELL be holding a power over the residents of the home, and has now set its sights on the presenters themselves.
And one of the things I love about this, is not only that almost noone knew this was fictional (leading a LARGE number of complaints into the BBC over the following week, some from genuinely concerned viewers who thought they’d seen live paranormal activity, and others from VERY angry people who didnt like the fact that, for a breif moment, they’d been tricked.
The script is VERY naturalistic and really doesnt feel out of place from other live shows that were on around the time. In fact; for me that is one of the hinderences of this thing, is that there are several VERY long portions where not a whole lot happens. It helps to set an uneasy atmosphere…but there were points where it went on long enough that i’d flick over to my phone or…y’know…write the letterboxd review for this…
And thats a shame because on the direction and cine side of things this is a masterpiece of subtlety. The first time you watch this, they’ll bring up ‘ghostly’ shapes being seen occasionally during the broadcast. But the reality is, ‘Pipes’ is LITERALLY all over this movie. he’s in the reflections of glass, he’s hiding in the top and bottom of shots, he’s in the background of group shots. and as the film goes on it gets more and more till one HELL of a finale which, if I DIDNT know this was fictional, I’D have been concerned for all involved!
It means that, while there are long gulfs…you do get at least half a dozen watches worth of value out of re-going through the footage to try and find all the ‘Pipes’ shots. some become obvious on a 2nd viewing, and it makes you wonder how you missed it the first time. Others are a lot harder and people are still finding ‘Pipes’ shots to this day! which is amazing really.
With it mimicking live broadcasts of the time, it more than looks the part here acting as most 90s live shows on the BBC did, complete with long unbroken flowing takes of cameras sweeping through the house and up the stairs. the edit is tight, but with noticeable little *purposful* errors here and there to help add to the nervous ‘on the fly’ energy of the whole thing. Particularly when ‘Pipes’ starts causing a bit more chaos. Its wonderfully handled and I think really does the job!
The cast are on form, naturalistic, perfeclty in ‘hosting’ mode and animate. I cant fault them, and the scoring is mainly diagetic, and they do an ASTOUNDING job of getting the silence and creepy noises down to an atmospheric art. I genuinely STILL feel unsettled by this thing in places even 4 or 5 watches in.
In short; Ghostwatch is a fantastic piece of television history, and a pretty solid film. While pound for pound, i’d still probably lean a bit more towards The ‘WNUF Halloween Special’ just purely because I feel like the commercial breaks help break the action up a bit more and stop it from feeling pedestrian. This is an absolute joy to put on if you want properly unsettling ‘broadcast’ horror. it’d pair nicely with something like ‘WNUF’ or maybe to a lesser extent some of the ‘V/H/S’ shorts…But even on its own, theres fun to be had with this thing, and i’d absolutely recommend checking it out at least once.
As another year winds down to a close, I decided this year to do something a little bit different. Last year, at the end of the year, I put together a letterboxd list of my ‘Top 10 films I’d seen in 2022 for the first time’. They didnt have to BE films made in 2022, they just had to be movies that, to me; were a first time viewing. And I quite enjoyed the experience honestly. It made for an interesting journey back through my Letterboxd diary list for that year to shortlist out the films i’d watched for the first time, and to see which ones, thanks to the passage of time, had matured into something I’d genuinely enjoyed.
There were movies i’d loved on the first watch, but had soured over the months since checking them out, by contrast there were films I thought were absolute stinkers for which, the passage of time had actually mellowed my views and given me a new affection towards them. Movies like ‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ and ‘Thriller: A Cruel Picture’ were no brainers, but the likes of ‘SGT. Kabukiman: NYPD’ genuinely caught me off guard!
So! With 2023 only 2 days away from completion, I thought i’d do it all again and pull up my ‘Top 10 First time watches of 2023’. Frankly; given theres still 2 days left of the year, im a little bit concerned even at this point that I may get one final amazing movie land in my bluray player before the years out…But! We do have to cut these things off at SOME point… Some may surprise, though I reckon anyone who’s been paying attention to my Letterboxd and youtube channel will probably have a pretty easy time guessing which movies made it into this list.
They wont be in any particular order, there isnt really a ‘best film of the year’ situation here (thats not how we roll) Instead, these are just 10 films that left a profound impact on me that I absolutely would recommend you guys, gals and NB sweethearts check out at your next convenience. SO! With that out of the way…
Starting things off we have a film that I *very* nearly watched this time last year before life got in the way and it *just* slipped back into the first couple of days of January. ‘Elvis’ was one of the first 4k discs I picked up and I was absolutely blown away by both its lavish and sumptuous attention to visual detail, AND the script itself. Dancing a very fine line between campy TV movie and a visual feast. ‘Elvis’ is probably one of my favourite Baz Luhrmann films to date. A kaleidoscope of golds and reds.
This truely felt like a film pushing the boundaries of the medium itself (as of 2022) in places, and it made me very excited of what lies in store for us in the coming decades. While it absolutely can be accused of boiling down Elvis to ‘just the basics’, with some moments of the film bordering on ‘Dewey Cox’ levels of simplicity. I found that aspect of the production charming and it only further enhanced the campy elements for me. With it shooting well past the 2 and a half hour mark, it unfortunately wont be one I have time to sink into again in a hurry, which is in fact one of the only bad things I have to say about it. Had it been closer to 90 or even 120 minutes, i’d have been much more likely to rewatch it. But even so, this was a delight.
A film that was recommended to me by a viewer on my youtube channel, i’d vaguely heard of ‘Paperhouse’ before being asked to cover it, but I thought a lot of the promotional work looked a little bit uninspired, so I put it in my ‘to watch’ pile and essentially relegated it to ‘When I have a gap in the schedules’ status. Little did I know that arguably one of the best movies of that season was quite LITERALLY under my nose the entire time, a fact for which I apologise to whoever recommended this one to me for delaying it for so long.
Paperhouse, from a marketing perspective looks like some kind of drama, maybe with some very light fantasy elements (think ‘Celia’). But if you cut through the promotional materials, theres a much richer complex story being told here, One that strongly reminded me of the works of Guillermo Del Toro’s better offerings…Though miraculously, this one came first.
A dark and moody fantasy dealing with themes of abandonment, puberty and the ups and downs of life in working class England. ‘Paperhouse’ mixes bleak and gritty cinematography with an abstract fantasy edge to create an end product that Bernard Rose should be VERY proud of. It still blows my mind quite honestly that this thing is trapped on DVD. a 4k release of this film seems like a total no brainer, and I have to assume its caught in some kind of rights limbo because, other than a *slightly* shaky ending, the only other thing I could honestly pick fault with was the DVD presentation starting to show its age.
Definitely worth checking out if your smitten with young adult-esq fantasy fiction, ‘Paperhouse’ was a film I took for granted, and I regretted doing so every day after watching it.
Another totally pleasant surprise for me this year, this one was recommended by friend of the show ‘Triv’ from Trivial Theater, who brought it up during a podcast recording this year as a film she’d recently checked out that she thought i’d really quite like. And she ABSOLUTELY wasnt wrong!
‘Beyond the Seventh Door’ is a bit of an oddity, a Canadian SOV film that looks and feels like the kind of thing you’d have seen in the 90s as a physical gameshow on TV, such as ‘The Crystal Maze’ or ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’.
Its an oddity also in the sense that…for SOV…80’s SOV…It actually looks really bloody good! We have crisp and sharp video footage that feels right around broadcast quality, the set work is superb with spaces that have lots of moving parts, intricate detailing and interesting small details…This is a low/no budget SOV film that features a scene where our main characters have to solve a word puzzle that built into the floor ‘hopscotch’ style, and when they DO solve the puzzle one of the tiles on the floor starts lowering like an elevator. I have seen HUNDREDS of SOV flicks in my time…I’ve never seen one do something like that!
Littered with small references to the place it was filmed in, ‘Beyond the Seventh Door’ is pretty much the best SOV flick i’ve seen this year. And thats not even BEGINNING to mention ‘Lazar Rockwood’ who’s performance here is absolutely insane and only pushed this thing even further up my ‘must see’ list. If you have any good feelings towards SOV cinema at all, this is a must see in my opinion. A short but sweet fun little romp that has genuine passion behind it and hits all the right notes.
Towards the end of this year, I finally decided to plug a big gap in my horror knowledge and took the plunge in checking out the ‘Saw’ franchise. Part of this was down to the fact i’d only ever previously seen ‘Saw’ 1 and 2. Part of it was down to the fact that Shudder announced they would be streaming the first 7 films on their platform…and I figured at £4-5 for a months subscription, this would probably be the cheapest way to catch all of them, short of doing naughty torrents or paying £25-£45 for the privilege of a boxset.
‘Saw X’ is the latest entry in the franchise (coming out this year no less!) and it isnt so much what this film DOES, but rather what it DOESNT do…Set in between ‘Saw’ 1 and 2, ‘X’ breaks from the formula, doing the one thing i’d wished ALL these ‘Saw’ films had done in the first place. It tells a largely self contained story, in an interesting way that prioritizes character development over gory visuals.
This isnt a film where you need to remember the ‘lore’ of 8 other movies for it to make sense, and it isnt trying to essentially be a glorified ‘snuff’ film as the latter entries in this franchise ultimately ended up. ‘Saw X’ gives Jigsaw and Amanda a LOT more room to explore there own morals, hang ups and humanity. In such a way that NON of the other ‘Saw’ films have really bothered with. Its script is razor in it’s execution, flexing wildly between getting us to sympathise with Tobin Bells character, who ultimately believes that what he’s doing is morally sound. While not failing to remind us that he IS ALSO responsible (directly or indirectly) for multiple people now missing limbs or not being alive anymore.
Thats not to downplay the kills in this film either however which are some of the series best, with over the top gory slayings that dance a VERY fine line between being quite campy in there execution and downright unsettling.
With rock solid performances, some fantastic camera work, the sharpest script the franchise has had in *at least* 15 if not 20 years, and a score that felt oppressive and perfectly timed. ‘Saw X’ left a solid impression on me that didnt leave for quite a while, I almost feel bad I didnt get to catch this one in theaters.
Another one that I’d put off for years through a mixture of split opinions on what its trying to communicate, AND the shocking fact that this thing hasnt yet made the jump to HD. I caught ‘Idiocracy’ with my partner over the summer for the first time, and while it’s now seen as fairly trite to say this film was supposed to be a warning, not a documentary. I couldnt help but laugh in a somewhat worried way at just how many things mentioned in this film could, entirely realistically, happen in the real world in the very near future.
I appreciate that, by the time I have gotten to this film, the moment for it has well and truely passed. But as someone who went into this thing only knowing the absolute barest of plot points (a guy gets frozen in the early 2000’s and wakes up in the far FAR future in which humanity has almost entirely out bred and outpriced the intelligent from the planet and created a ‘coddled’ version of society that doesnt know why things are the way they are, but wont question it either) I honestly just found it quite funny. Yes its a bit sneering in places, yes it does dabble in Eugenics talk in places (largely the first act) but once it gets underway and it boils down to ‘average intelligence guy is basically the only ‘Einstein’ on a planet of idiots’, It falls into Mike Judges specialty area. Dumb humour. And from that point on, its just gut buster after gut buster for me.
Its a largely professional end product as well, which was a nice surprise. Given the budget and how easy it would have been to just turn this into a cheap and nasty ‘dumb people be dumb’ movie. It DOES at least attempt to add a bit more complexity and scathing commentary on society into the mix to bring it up to the next level. I think it’ll be interesting to see how this film ages over the NEXT 20 years…because if the 20 or so years between this film and now has made it feel THIS close to reality. Lord knows where the next 20 will take us. It’s not for everyone, but I personally had quite the soft spot for it.
A genuinely pleasant surprise to stumble on, I found ‘Deadstream’ literally at random one night while flicking around on Shudder looking for something to kill 90 or so minutes, normally I don’t tend to watch ‘Shudder Originals’ as my past experience with them hasnt been the best. But the marketing made this sound like it was some kind of ‘found footage’ horror film about a social media influencer livestreaming his time in a haunted house for clicks…and that sounded kind of neat for me…well…neat enough to take a 90 minute gamble on it.
Then the comedy hit, and I totally fell in love with it. Comparisons to ‘Evil Dead 2’ are kind of obvious with this one, I honestly wasnt expecting this to be a horror comedy, and a GOOD horror comedy at that! Its all presented as if your watching a livestream take place, and while some of the plot points are a *little* bit dubious (our main character has half a dozen ‘go pro’ esq cameras that he sets up around the haunted house that he can control, cut to and generally use at ANY time with NO interruption thats simultaneously able to be controlled by an Ipad, BUT ALSO has a wireless direct feedline to whatever software hes using to stream…thats a big mental leap for me to make honestly)
In some ways, the simplicity of the execution is kind of what draws me to it, I feel like had this been a much more polished affair, it wouldnt have the charm. Its that rough and ready, rogueish element that really quite won me over. Our lead character is charismatic, has a deep history that gets pooled into across the runtime leading to a nice slowburn release about his character.
Most importantly, its a movie trying to be a livestream, that ACTUALLY feels like a live stream! Which an astonishing number of movies really quite fail to achieve (its a similar problem that plagues scenes where actors play video games in movies…either they don’t look like they’re *Really* playing the game or the game looks less like a game, and more like an animation…
In either case, Deadstream is a big goofy and surprisingly well made feature that I feel would pair wonderfully with something like ‘The WNUF Halloween Special’ and is absolutely worth your time.
I can often be accused of being ‘late to the party’ on some movies. In many ways I prefer it that way because it means I rarely get swept up in the ‘hype’ that often comes with new releases. But it does then have the negative consequence of having to find the time to play catch up with the rest of the world.
This year, I decided I wanted to try and plug a gap in my Quentin Tarantino knowledge, at the start of the year i’d seen just under half of his movies, and (broadly speaking) I do have a soft spot for his work. ‘Resevoir Dogs’ and the ‘Kill Bill’ movies did a wonderful bit of upcycling in taking awesome moments from B-picture exploitation flicks and transplanting them into larger budgeted, studio driven productions…Part of me kind of resents that because I feel it downplays the importance of the cult source material…but then…part of me knows had he not ripped off a ton of exploitation pictures, audiences likely would have never appreciated them, or even known they existed…
My Tarantino gap was really everything after ‘Kill Bill Volume 2’, I’d seen ‘The Hateful 8’ but that was about it. So…as you can imagine, when I found out that Tarantino had gone MASSIVELY grander in his visions for his films post 90s…I quickly got quite invested. And by the time I got to ‘Django: Unchained’ well I just about lost my damn mind frankly.
Doing what he did with asian cinema, and the cult B-pictures of the drive in ‘Django’ takes the exploitation era spaghetti westerns and pulps them into a 2+hour long visual feast, arguably not just one of his best movies, but one of the greatest westerns of the 21st century (which…being honest, isnt THAT hard of an achievement…but it sounds cool…so im going to roll with it)
An Acidic anti racist script laced with scathing commentary on American culture and slavery. Django is unflinching in what it sets out to do, and it does what it sets out to do really bloody well.
With rich colourful visuals, an astoundingly powerful script, some of the strongest direction Tarantinos ever committed to film and a score that makes my hair stand up on end. Im getting to a point in life where I feel like I could say ‘Django’ is my favourite Tarantino film. Its almost certainly a peak for him as a creator that he hasnt *quite* managed to scale again since. But if you only catch one of his movies. This or ‘Reservoir Dogs’ are essentials.
Making it onto the list by literal DAYS. It was a total accident that I wound up catching ‘Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World’. I decided while on my Christmas Vacation that now would be a time to try and sink all the 2+ hour movies I had because I really don’t have the time to watch anything that long (or longer) while im working. This had been near the top of my ‘To watch’ list for a while, so I gave it a chance and didnt regret it for a second.
Essentially, it feels like the film makers got their hands on a list of every US comedian or entertainer from 1930 to the present day of 1963 who wasnt dead, called them and asked if they’d be interested in starring in a movie…and seemingly most of them said ‘Sure!’
Its SO densely packed with now LEGENDARY comedians you barely get a second to catch your breath before the next madcap scene is taking place. Its a non stop barrage of every single type of comedy you’d care to think of. And while I cant say there was much in the way of total gut busting laughs. It did have a consistently good hit rate for jokes, enough to keep you smiling and chuckling from beginning to end.
Everyone involved seems to know the tone this thing is working towards, Everyone seems to be having a really good time on set, the direction and cine are astounding for the time with grand comedic set pieces looking utterly effortless for the most part, the script is damn near perfect, the scoring perfeclty suited and highly memorable. This things slow burn, but very VERY rewarding. By the time the end credits came around, I knew i’d just sat through something quite special and I really cant wait till I next get an opportunity to watch it again.
‘Barbie’ was arguably my most anticipated release of the year, i’d been ready and waiting for it from the moment the very first ‘early preview’ trailer for it launched back in 2022, based on that trailer and the handful of set photos that had come out around it, I knew that there was something special going on behind the scenes with this one, and I absolutely was NOT disappointed.
They really don’t make movies like ‘Barbie’ anymore, an ultra colourful, seemingly harmless on the surface big dumb adventure comedy movie, the last time this kind of thing had a resurgence was in the 80s with films like ‘The Goonies’ or ‘Pee Wees Big adventure’ only…those films were ONLY really there to entertain. ‘Barbie’ has an added layer to it, which is beyond the bubblegum pop aesthetic and ‘head emptiness, is an acidically self aware script that directly attacks toxic masculinity, attempts to teach progressive feminism in basic terms both to a very young audience or to people who may not entirely understand the fundamentals and not only does it shine a light on those traits, it inverts them, inviting men to question their own flaws and women to question the very purpose of their own personal existence.
Traditionally; if I go to see a film in theaters, i’ll go once and then pick up the bluray/4k if I really liked it. I went to see Barbie twice in theaters, bought the streamable copy as soon as it became available and as of the time of writing I have the 4k release winging its way to my doorstep courtesy of Amazon.
Its a truely astounding work of our time that not only something like this would be released internationally, but that TWO major companies would have greenlit this given the film attacks those companies as ‘part of the problem’ amongst its many MANY other axes to grind. Im still kind of in shock the film got made at all letalone released, and its a testimony to it’s uniqueness in a sea of ‘Marvels’ and ‘Star Wars-es…’ that this became one of the highest grossing films of the year. A title I feel it rightfully earned.
While I will admit, sometimes it can get a little heavy handed on its messaging, i’d also suggest that…some people need that level of detail BECAUSE this kind of content is so alien to them. It can be a bit patronizing to people who get it, but the fact it boils things down to SUCH a simple level that even kids can understand it, I thought was honestly quite wonderful.
I was sold on the aesthetic of this thing before it even hit theaters, but to be hit with SUCH an ‘out of left field’ revelation that this film was smart, and wanted YOU to know it was smart…was the thing that absolutely made me fall in love with it.
Easily my favourite film released this year, My only concern now is the glut of ‘sanitized’ movies that’ll be coming in 2025 trying to do what ‘Barbie’ did, but in a safer…more studio friendly way…*sigh* ah well…the world probably needed a ‘Hot Wheels’ Movie that deals with gentrification anyway…
And last, but certainly not least. We have ‘Dr. Caligari’ probably my most anticipated purchase of this year, I nabbed it from Mondo Macabre last Halloween and it arrived just in time for me to include it in my youtube channel, where it (quite rightfully) took the season finale slot.
Its an 80s neu wave explosion in a paint factory of a movie thats *suggested* to be a sequel to the german expressionist film (maybe even a remake) but realistically…shares a name and a couple of plot beats, but not much else. And I absolutely adored it. The mashing up of the german expressionist movement and the 80s new wave movement was a totally inspired decision, the film looks unique, handmade and fairly lavish given the minimal set scenery (most of this takes place in a void with bizarre props and set pieces in the foreground)
The script is nuttier than fruit cake, but has a lot to say about the medical industry of the US, the characters are all eccentric, over the top, camp tastic and utterly delightful to be around. The direction is very considered with a rock solid edit, razor cine and scripting and a killer score. This is everything I want out of an art house movie and more, and it’s really put me on to Stephen Sayadian in a big way (my kingdom for ‘Nightdreams 4k’
Its just such a delight to sit through honestly, with not a single dull moment, I utterly loved this movie. And with news that ‘Cafe Flesh’ is also making its way to 4k in 2024. All I can say is…I look forward to talking about Sayadians work again this time next year.
…I knew I should have just called this one ‘Season X’ or ‘Not Season 13’ or something like that…Bizarrely the actual production of this season more or less went without a hitch. All these episodes were written, recorded and edited between late July 2022 and early January 2023. Before any of the crappy problems i’d had with this year really got underway… With only the last 2 reviews (Die hard Dracula and Dr. Caligari) happening later (Caligari was written, edited and uploaded in late April/Early May, and Die hard Dracula was written in July, edited in late august and uploaded in September)
Quite honestly, it feels like an age ago since I worked on these. im usually quicker at putting together a ‘Finishing the…’ post on these, but the series finished with a perfect dovetail into a TON of personal problems that basically wrote me off for most of July/August/September and October…
I can say that this season introduced me to a few films that im now very happy I checked out, that HAVE been on repeat rotation now for a little bit. Though, i’ve got to admit, because of life stuff happening right at the tale end of the run, I was kind of on autopilot for the back end of this season.
Even so, I think some of my best reviews are included here. Its overall a sturdy season that I think has a decent flow, and given that this was the one and only season of this year. Im quite proud with how it turned out…
The next 12 months (Seasons 14 and 15) are going to feel a little odd comparatively because not only have I had to split the original season 14 almost in half (with half making up half the run of Season 14 – Jan – June 2024, and the other half going into Season 15 – Sept – December 2024) But also because we’re going to be making less episodes overall…It means realistically, the next time I’ll get to sit and properly plan out a new season from Tail to Snout will be Season 16 (Feb – June 2025) which feels like a lifetime away…But planning for that will begin around August of next year…Which’ll crop up on us sooner than you’d think…
Anyway; im rambling…I wish I remembered more about the making of this season honestly. from what I can recall though it was just really smooth sailing right up till the last 6 or so episodes…then things started to get a bit messy…Messy doesnt mean bad mind…I had a lot of fun with this season…Messy here quite literally means…messy.
Seldom do courtroom dramas manage to keep my attention held for longer than an hour, letalone two. But 1992’s ‘My Cousin Vinny’ seems to almost effortlessly dance the line between soft comedy and genuinely engaging drama.
The plot? 2 young men on christmas break get picked up by the cops when the owner of a store they stopped off at winds up murdered and witnesses say they saw their car speeding from the scene, at first the men dont realise they’re in for Murder. They think they’ve been picked up because one of the gents accidentally put a tin of tuna in his pocket and forgot to pay.
Its only AFTER the pair basically admit ‘they did it’ that they realise what they’ve been admitting to…is MURDER. Seemingly on the line for a crime they didnt commit, the pair dont have the cash to hire an attourney, so one of them calls his mother, who informs him that theres a practicing lawyer in the family who’ll happily represent them and waive his fee.
Enter Joe Pesci as Vinny, a man who’s legal standing is dubeous at best and has never represented someone on a trial level, who rocks up to town in a mud covered convertable with his long suffering fiance Mona Lisa Vito. As you can imagine, its a steep learning curve to go from defending against the occasional parking ticket to representing 2 people for murder and aiding and abetting…But being a lawyer cant be that hard…surely?
And honestly? I loved this thing, the script is just such a well crafted and delightful piece that keeps a slow and steady pace across a clean 3 act structure, its apparently fairly accurate in terms of how court practices take place. It manages to thrill at times with genuine revelations that come out of left field, while also sprinkling in a nice amount of genuinely funny comedy moments.
The characters are well written with a decent degree of depth and nuance, complexities that arnt really commonly seen in films like this…or if they are are often overly stuffy or on a more emotional level. This, at its heart is really more of a family drama that just so happens to be centered around a courtroom. With Vinny and Mona Lisas relationship and Vinny and his cousins relationship forming a sturdy base with which the trial is hung.
Theres also a wide range of characters on show, you have Vinny and Mona Lisa who are almost charicatures of the typical stereotypical big town new yorkers. But then around them you have a mixture of southern stereotypes, eccentrics and even some just plain old normal people. Its a melting pot of styles that in less capable hands could have easily fallen down, but here? its a lot of plates successfully spun in my opinion.
Tonally it’s very well balanced with a wide(ish) range of humour that dabbles in a bit of everything, but never goes too far into any one type thus removing the risk of it becoming annoying or lopsided. In fact, theres only two things im particularly critical of here…One of which is the sheer amount of swearing…Now dont get me wrong, I like a well timed ‘F-bomb’ as much as the next guy. But swearing in comedy is a delicate art, a well timed curse word can be hilarious. But if its used too much, or aggressively overplayed, it quickly stops being funny and starts feeling fake. Or worse, irritating.
Here? they overdo it in my opinion. There are some very well timed moments, but it almost felt like they were trying to go for a record setter on how many ‘Fucks’ they could put into the movie before the credits. I dont think it helped the script and a lot of them just felt kind of forced.
The OTHER issue (and this really is a nitpick) is the pacing. Which, while its slowburn and largely fine for most of the runtime, isnt without its problems. A recurring gag in which Pesci and his partner are woken up at 5am (or earlier) by various countryside noises is at first quirky and kind of charming, but they repeat it 1 or 2 too many times and as a result the payoff feels a bit overstayed. Theres a lot of scenes in hotel rooms, which I appreciate keeps the costs down, but they didnt quite feel necessary to the overall plot. Its a case once again where I reckon one more pass through to take 2 hours down by…even 5 minutes, probably would have helped this film a lot more than hindered it.
Outside of that, the direction is actually pretty standard for a film like this, its a studio picture, they dont really experiment all that much, stylistically it kind of reminded me of a John Hughes film…But it doesnt really seem to find its own identity until near the 3rd act, at which point the moments kind of gone. That being said, its a tight production with all the cast seemingly knowing EXACTLY where to be and how to play to the directors interests and the crew doing a fantastic job of working together to bring the thing to life.
The cine too is pretty solid, but also kind of standard, theres decent attempts at blocking, colour use is a bit of an issue as its a fairly muted production on that front. and while theres a healthy amount of b-roll, I think it would have benefitted from just a little more and a rethink on what kind of identity this film wanted to make for itself. Just a smidge more of a stylized approach really could have been a big lift for this thing.
I also had a few problems with the edit, which is remarkably well timed for a comedy in a courtroom. But some scenes do have strange cuts, which make me think there were last minute removals from the film and some scenes end kind of abruptly or without reason. Theres also some threads that never really get resolved or paid off. Its not the cleanest edit i’ve ever seen, i’ve absolutely seen worse. But thats probably this films biggest issue.
Performance wise, its damn near perfect. This is absolutely a role I can only really envision Joe Pesci playing, Vinnys a loudmouth, arrogant, sarcastic, he’s not above bending the law to get what he wants. he’s animated and while hes REALLY leaning into the NY accent here, he IS this movie. And his performance here is easily up there with some of his best.
Same goes for Marisa Tomei who I just utterly melted for here as Mona Lisa Vinny, she’s caring, compassionate, INCREDIBLY knowledgable , but not above calling someone out if they’re bullshitting. Tomei brings every single aspect of that character to life with a real zeal, much like Pesci, not only can I not imagine anyone else playing this role. I dont WANT anyone else to play this role. it’s perfect to the point of near iconic.
Not forgetting Fred Gwynne of course as the judge, who’s very dower and brings a real no nonsense energy to the role, but even in doing so manages to keep things animate in his facial expressions. He’s a fantastic character actor and here? its nice to see him play against type as a somewhat grumpy character who just wants to get on with his day.
The soundtracks so 90s its painful in places, but it does have some nice jukebox 50s and early 60s tracks to help create a ‘throwback’ sense. The scores used effectively, its fine enough. But I do feel it could have been stronger.
All in all? I was very pleasently surprised by this. I can easily see it having a lot of rewatch value, I really enjoyed it as a quite gentle and mellow watch. Highly recommended even if you arnt that sold on courtroom pieces. Its an interesting twist on a familiar genre that isnt too heavy handed, and has a lot of heart.
Just wanted to add that I caught the Kino/Studio Canal Bluray release of this tonight (an upgrade from my first viewing on an original precert VHS tape) and I can confirm that I feel I was correct in that the cine is absolutely 100 times more gorgeous in HD with the colour and white balance corrected. It’s a sublime looking piece. Despite my issues with it.
Long considered a lost film, ‘Take it out in Trade’ marked the end of Ed Wood’s career as a director (barring a VERY brief stint in the late 70’s/early 80s when shooting test footage for ‘Beach blanket Bloodbath). His last film? Well…it’s no ‘Glen or Glenda’ or ‘Plan 9’ But the Ed Wood charms are absolutely still there bubbling under the surface.
‘Take it out in trade’ is (vibe wise) essentially a mash up of ‘The Sinister Urge’ and ‘Orgy of the Dead’ viewed throught he prism of a Ray Dennis Steckler porn film. The plot; a detective for hire is brought in by worried parents who’s daughter has packed up and left home with no explanation or clear reason. The detective is hired to locate her and bring her home for a decent payment.
Where is the daughter? Well this is a 70’s semi softcore porn flick. So as you can imagine, she’s working in a high end brothel. And what follows is essentially a ‘back and forth’ between softcore and mid hardcore sequences of the girls of the brothel ‘doing there thing’ and the detective visiting associates of the girl trying to find some kind of lead that’ll put him on her trail.
I really do have quite mixed feelings about this one, the plot isnt particularly mindblowing (its a porno made for next to nothing…Written by a now chronically alcoholic Ed Wood…This was never going to be ‘Citizen Kane’) But I must admit I found the character work here to be utterly delightful, and easily the main selling point of this feature. The characters arnt particularly well written you understand, but Ed’s ability to find outsiders, weirdos and crusties is clearly still going strong here as the actors brought in here let their personalities overtake ANY kind of dialogue that Ed could have written.
For my money, the personal highlights of this are an extended scene in which our detective vists a heroin addict with STRONG Edith Massey vibes who genuinely seems lost in the scene and is clearly looking for instruction off camera. And probably the *other* highlight of this film (So good its on the poster) a cameo from Ed himself playing a loose lipped but slightly slurring drag queen who chews through the scenery like termites on drywall.
The whole vibe of the movie is one of unease, but not unpleasent unease…an unease that stems from a genuine loss as to what on EARTH the films going to pull out next. Which makes it all the more dissapointing that 7 times out of 10, what it does ‘pull out next’ is usually a badly shot softcore scene that feels like Stecklers work on a good day.
The scenes are overly long, regularly cross the line, have no level of eroticism or depth, REGULARLY repeat shots (and even MORE bizarrely, they’ll reuse shots from previous scenes, in later scenes, to try and pad the runtime) you see 1 or 2 instances of female full frontal, but strangely, large chunks of the movie just consist of M/F humping with underwear (and in some cases trousers too) on at all times, or F/F humping in similar circumstances…I dont know whether the full frontal nudity sprinkled throughout was a result of them realising they COULD go harder midway through filming, or Eds reluctance to shoot penetration…But in either case it doenst matter, the scenes arnt well orchestrated, feel rushed and badly cut, and they go on for bloody AGES with no real resolution.
I found myself genuinely getting quite bored of the sex after a while just for how pedestrian and ‘of the motions’ it really was, and found myself much more compelled towards the eccentric journey of our lead Detective on his case. in many ways I wish they’d just stuck to that plot line as i’d have had a much more satisfying time (and more Ed would have REALLY been a boon considering he’s only in one scene for around 4-5 minutes)
The directions not Ed’s best, like the sex scenes there isnt really much coherency to the arrangements of shots, it doesnt really seem to have much of a creative flare, and almost feels like Ed’s voice has been watered down when compared to films like ‘Orgy of the dead’ (which Ed wrote and you can ABSOLUTELY tell) or ‘Love feast’ (which Ed starred in and brings his own eccentricities to the role)
This? feels kind of limp, It has its moments…but not enough to help it really get a foothold in the same way Ed’s other works appealed.
The cine too is fairly bland, its largely flat profile, VERY little B-roll, sequences run on static, locked off shots for WAY too long, the heavy use of recycled footage is problematic and…seemingly at random, the film will suddenly swap from pedestrian padded editing to an almost breakneck flurry of edits (presumably to get in on the dying rasps of 60’s ‘freakout’ culture) Much like the characters and the script, this has its moments visually, but is otherwise kind of bland and cheap feeling.
On the whole? ‘Take it out in Trade’ didnt quite set my socks on fire, its a poor way for Ed to go out, with his voice as a scriptwriter watered down to the absolute basics, his directional flare curtailed down to the barest minimums. Its a largely uninspired work, with drab, dull and at times unpleasent to view sex scenes and a threadbear script that just about manages to hobble on in terms of its plotting.
On the other hand, the cast are all UTTERLY nuts (in the best possible way) and pretty much save the film from TOTALLY falling off the rails. The script DOES facilitate some genuinely bizarre moments from them, and the strange editing and use of footage sometime yields frankly odd results that I found appealing.
I think I prefer this to ‘Orgy of the deads’ “Nudie Cutie” style of just throwing a girl out to strip off for 8 minutes while the amazing Creswell sits just off screen throwing ‘futurisms’ out…this actually feels like a film rather than a peep show…But I dont think this will quite have the rewatch value of Woods non pornographic works. I could maybe see it pairing up with some of Steckler or John Waters early works…But if I wanna watch an Ed wood Movie…this wont be the one im first to reach for.
But today I recieved the recent AGFA reissue of this and ‘Take it out in Trade’ and figured a rewatch was a little overdue. Given my previous copy came from the early 2000’s ‘Angora’ DVD set. This release was night and day, as we jump from a watermarked, 4:3, VHS transfer dumped on disc for a relatively crisp and clean HD scan with a decent amount of grain and some light wear thrown into the mix for ‘Character’.
This is probably the best this release this film has had, accompanied by a decent amount of extras that really help flesh it out. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for ‘The Violent Years’ as one of Ed’s more rowdy works. So im beyond happy to have a high quality copy now sitting on my shelf. And I highly recommend you check out the Vinegar Syndrome/AGFA/Something weird Bluray release of this one before its gone (there are very very few copies left available on their site).
TYTD Reviews 