Random

Mussolini: Son Of The Century - 2024 - Italy Mussolini: Son Of The Century - 2024 - 8/10   Dazzling series of Il Duce’s rise from Fascist fringe to taking control of Parliament. Plot encapsulated = The self-serving usurps democracy. Luca Marinelli is utterly mesmerizing: funny, honest, brutal, manipulative, fearful. This moves at a furious pace, compressing events and overlapping images.  Lavish production values. Sex, violence, profanity, blasphemy, along with the treachery that accompanies politicians, Bristling dialogue will thrill or terrify.  “Fascism is the rule of force.  It is the will of a few imposed on the will of many.  It’s the law of the stronger.  It’s hatred, it’s mass excitement, it’s anger.  It’s contempt for weakness and doubt.  And whoever gets in the way …” The rare beast that is frightening and nervous laughter. For whatever reason, not yet airing in the USofA.

Crá - 2024 - Ireland Crá - 2024 - 7/10   Mom had vanished a decade earlier. Some thought foul play, others that she fled. The husband was a monster and the business plunging into bankruptcy. Until, rising from the bog, the corpse rises, showing signs of murder. Theories increase as quickly as suspects. Slow boil Irish thriller, set in bleak, lonely boglands. Unsavory souls, hustlers and buried histories. Forced village camaraderie masks bleak existence.

We All Lie - 2024 - China We All Lie - 2024 - 6/10 AKA - Hun Yin Gong Lue // 婚姻攻略   Top drama writer Su Li and actor husband Shuheng have a picture perfect marriage. Except he is romping the sheets with Yingying, an earthier, more carnal oriented female. Of course, the wronged wife finds out and quickly plots revenge, financial and career wise. Whereupon the adulterous pair work to get even. C-drama of deception, vengeance, and scheming bounces along for awhile. Until the narrative loses momentum and a mushy sidetrack enters. Then, all downhill into soap opera weeping and flowers. I suspect the Chinese morality police took the punch bowl away.

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp - 1970 - USA Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp - 1970 - 5/10   So, late at night, past 2:00 AM, you’re so hammered you cannot fall asleep or pass out. Switch on late night TV, endless river of mindless dreck. You jump channels until you reach a nightclub where a chimpanzee band is performing. Until you realize this hopping joint is a meeting place for spies. Good agents APE versus baddies CHUMP. Beyond weird, Lance Link could only have emerged at the tail end of the 60’s. My brain eventually seized, as I wondered: they play instruments, drive cars, ride motorcycles. Someone trained them?  Why aren’t they in politics?

The Au Pair - 2025 - UK The Au Pair - 2025 - 5/10   Fashion designer Zoe and husband Dr. Chris hire an au pair for their too-old-to-need-one kids. The French arrival, smiles on the surface, malice beneath, launches quiet sabotage from the onset. Wily Sandrine holds your interest, wondering what drives her, and who or what she will destroy next. To my annoyance and frustration, the narrative pivots midway into family angst. This becomes a completely different story, and I start barking at characters with short term memories. My suspicion is the writing room boxed itself into a corner, then shrugged.