Director Rospo Pallenberg’s “Cutting Class” is a slasher film I’ve grown to enjoy over the years, and maybe that’s because there’s rarely a slasher that doesn’t win my heart. I first caught it during a late night screening on cable, and since then it’s grown on me immensely. It’s a late eighties last gasp at the slasher sub-genre that relies on the comedic styling of Martin Mull who attempts to survive an arrow attack in a conspicuously detached sub-plot from the central premise of a slasher stalking a high school.
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Captain America: Civil War (2016)
It’s apropos of Marvel to finally bring in Spider-Man to “Civil War.” Because while it is essential that he be introduced to a brilliant cinematic universe, he is representative of the underlying message behind “Civil War.” With great power comes great responsibility. After spending so many years doing battle with aliens and super powered foes, the Avengers are finally taking a toll on the world, and the government from all sides of the globe is angry at their inherent recklessness.
Coda (2014)
Alan Holly’s “Coda” is a remarkable and beautiful animated masterpiece. It’s rumination on the beauty of life and how senseless it can be. But Holly also observes that the beauty of life can be in how senseless and unpredictable it tends to be. Surely, people die for no reason, especially good people, but there’s a lot of amazing things that happen without prediction either. Often times some of the best moments of our lives happened spontaneously like fireworks from the darkness.
Cherry Falls (2000) [Blu-Ray]
If anything, “Cherry Falls” is a valiant attempt to deliver a game changing slasher film that tries to challenge the conventions of the sub-genre left and right. It has all the right ingredients for one excellent horror film, but in the end is just a fine and serviceable genre entry. I wouldn’t be so quick to say it’s mediocre, but compared to a lot of other “Scream” clones released at the time, “Cherry Falls” is a fine companion piece. It’s not often we get a slasher film about a knife wielding killer hacking virgins to death. This time rather than slut shaming as we saw in “Scream,” the victims are punished for not having sex, and that’s a formula that almost works. Almost.
The Corpse of Anna Fritz (El Cadaver de Anna Fritz) (2016)
(Mild Spoilers)
Ivan and Javi stop by Pau’s work at the hospital morgue on their way to a party. Pau lets them in on a secret: actress Anna Fritz is lying in his morgue, dead. The trio decides to go see her; to see how she looks as Pay says she doesn’t even look dead. Once in the morgue, Ivan decides to touch her and from there gets it in his mind that a bit of necrophilia won’t hurt anyone. However, he soon finds out that is not the case.
Camino (2016)
It’s pretty entertaining to see how much Zoe Bell has grown both as an actress and action star. Though “Camino” isn’t a masterpiece, Bell shines among everyone else as a vulnerable heroine who manages to make it out of a violent situation thanks to her wits and ability to endure hell in the jungle. Bell doesn’t play up the image of female Rambo this time around, opting instead for a more empathetic and layered character portrayal of a war photographer who has seen the worst of humanity, and then ends up becoming a victim of what ugliness humanity is capable of. Bell handles the role well, giving urgency to her character’s plight, and we root for her the entire way through.
Creed (2015) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
The Rocky saga has always been about parental issues and how parenting and lack thereof define our characters. Rocky had no real parents thus he was always thought of as a loser who gained a dad through Mickey. Adrian and Pauley were each others’ parents, while Rocky’s own son is somewhat a distant memory by the time “Creed” rolls around thanks to Rocky’s own destructive quest for glory. Despite their bonding in “Rocky Balboa” Rocky is still a lonely hermit of a man who runs a restaurant and lives in Philadelphia, still mourning the loss of wife Adrian and best friend Pauley. His effect has had more of a profound effect than he ever realized, as director Ryan Coogler reaches in to the Balboa mythology to touch on another family within the fold of the series that we rarely visited.