Film reviews: Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

So, we're not necessarily proud we watched these, but as you can tell from the fact that we watched the sequel after watching the first one, they were fun!  And as they say, there's no such thing as a guilty pleasure, so damnit, I recommend them.  In fact, if there was a third one, I'd watch that too!  You have to stick with the first one for a little bit, because it starts out rather obnoxiously, not just because the main character (who, for unknown reasons, is called "Tree") is herself obnoxious, but because she's a 30 year-old playing an undergraduate, and the general depiction of undergraduate life seems very stale and unreal.  However, once she gets killed for the first time (after you've sort of been rooting for it, to be honest), things improve.  The concept is slasher film-crossed-with-Groundhog Day, which doesn't sound either original or entertaining, but is made so by the surprisingly good writing and performances, especially by main actress Jessica Rothe (who, it seems, has always played younger than her age) who is fully committed to the indignities that the film throws at her. 

And, despite its slasher premise, both films manage to be surprisingly non-cloyingly sweet and genuinely comedic for large stretches (while also throwing in some jump scares).  It doesn't have the nasty aftertaste that, say, Scream has.  Anyway, Tree is stuck in her birthday, which she hates because it was also her mother's birthday, and she died three years ago.  So she is avoiding her father, who wants to meet for lunch, and is not really enthused by the fact that her sorority (yes, that's part of the stale-depiction-of-college-life aspect) is planning a secret party for her.  But she keeps getting killed by someone in a grotesque baby mask 

(which is the school mascot - the absurdity of which is voiced out loud by a character in the sequel) and this then wakes her up again in the bed in the dorm room of Carter, a boy (not a fraternity member) who took her home when she passed out drunk at a party the night before.  Over the course of the first film, she gradually falls for him, as he is obviously kind and decent, and, as in Groundhog Day, she becomes a better person (and comes to grips with how she's become hardened as a way to deal with the death of her mother) and thus to appreciate his qualities.  She becomes convinced that the person stalking her is a murderer who is initially a prisoner at the hospital where her roommate, and also her married biology professor, with whom she is having an affair, work.  And [SPOILER] indeed, when the baby mask finally comes off, it's his face.  And she has him at her mercy and can bump him off and, she believes, get out of the time loop by surviving the day, but by then he has already killed Carter, and she decides she has to reboot things one more time to save Carter first. But at the same time, one wrinkle that this story adds to Groundhog is that each death leaves her weaker, and she carries the scars of each into the next day.  

Will she succeed?  Well, duh, there's a sequel.  And, having watched the first one, you might wonder what there is to do a sequel about, as it doesn't really leave any loose ends.  And as the sequel starts, it looks like it's going to be about Ryan Phan, who has a recurring cameo in the original bursting in to the dorm room asking if Carter managed to get off with Tree, only using an obscene derogatory term for her.  Turns out Carter had slept in Ryan's bed and made him sleep in his car (improbably parked on a side-road just off campus) which, Ryan complained, smelled of "Hot Pockets and feet".  But then Ryan is killed by a psycho in a baby mask and he has to relive his day.  

However, once he has described this in earshot of Tree, she quickly fills him in on what's happening.  And Ryan also works out that the cause of all this is a science experiment that he and two other buddies are working on, 

which becomes the focus of the rest of the film, which is much more science-fictiony than the original, which left the explanation of the time loop open.  It also introduces the element of parallel dimensions, because it turns out that Tree has been hurled into one, one where (ugh) Carter is the boyfriend of the supremely shallow leader of her sorority, Danielle, but (yay) her mother is still alive!  So she has to choose between having Carter and having her Mother.  The serial killer crops up again (even though he's not the stabber that attacks Ryan) and several characters switch roles from good to evil or vice-versa.  While the first movie openly name-checks Groundhog Day, this one does so with Back to the Future Part 2, because, like that film, it recycles events from the first in a more complicated way (in both cases the joke is that Tree has not seen either film, to Carter's amazement). Also the second film seems to make an effort to bring the non-white characters into more central characters, because the first one only had them as cameos.  Surprisingly the sequel genuinely works, expanding the "universe" of the first one and, while there is a danger in explaining the mystery of the first one, it doesn't spoil it (and has very good call backs to it).  So, if you're in the mood for some lowbrow entertainment that still doesn't insult your intelligence, check these out!  (I just remembered that the much (and rightly) praised Russian Doll also uses the Groundhog Day premise, as does a film from last year called Palm Springs that a lot of people really liked (but that is on Hulu, so we can't see it) but HDD beat 'em to it (in fact, HDD2U came out at the same time as Russian Doll).  I suppose that just shows that Groundhog Day unearthed one of the few story archetypes that hadn't been around for centuries.  Was it really the first?  Apparently not.)

What we're up to

 "Where are the film reviews!?" say our legion of loyal readers.  Well, we're not watching films.  Both mine and Jami's terms have started, and more importantly, Jami's classes at Wayne State have started, so either she's frantically reading giant law tomes in the evening or we're watching something short that her tired brain can digest.  So we've been watching TV shows like Kingdom on Netflix (a sort of Game of Thrones set in old Korea (dunno exactly when, but they have muskets) only a lot less rapey, which is a relief).  Also, no dragons, and the "zombies" are more like the infected of 28 Days Later, with the feature that (at least, so it first appears) they can't stand the daylight) - highly recommended, but very intense. GREAT hats. 

Or Wellington Paranormal, by the same team behind What we do in the shadows (which we binge-watched a month or so ago), only so unavailable in the US that I had to order the DVD from New Zealand.  

Or a slew of true-crime documentaries.  We started with one on the Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez 

- he was active in LA in the late 80s, and still in the news when we arrived), and after we watched that one, Netflix just. keeps. pushing them at us.  The Ramirez one was kind of cheaply done, and is sort of a traditional tale of capturing a monster before he kills too many people.  The next one was about the Yorkshire Ripper, but ended up being a savage indictment of the police.  Even more that way was one (The Confession Killer) about Henry Lee Lucas who was supposedly the worst serial killer in US history, confessing to anything up to 600 murders, until the documentary takes an amazing turn.  

I recommend that one perhaps most.  Of course, we end up watching hourlong episodes back-to-back because they're so gripping, and we could've watched a film.  Or so I keep saying to Jami.  But does she listen?  Anyway, she frontloaded all her class presentations, so maybe we'll get back to the Criterion Channel in a couple of weeks.  See if you can hold out that long.

Camera dump

 Here are some pictures I've taken this month of walks with Frederick, of which (the pictures) I am more proud than I probably should be:

January 1st:

January 3rd:

January 4th:

January 5th:

January 6th:

January 8th:

January 10th:

January 14th:

January 17th:

January 20th:

January 21st:

Film review: The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

This is the original film, apparently thought lost until a recent restoration, on which the more famous Vincent Price House of Wax from the 50s was based.  It's made in an early version of Technicolor that seems to involve only two colors and which seems to give a slight 3D effect (at least, that's what my brain was telling me in the opening shot that panned over figures in the wax museum).  It's a pretty good little 30s horror film, with a very good victim-turned-villain (Lionel Atwill as Ivan Igor (pronounced as in Young Frankenstein)) and a very entertaining sassy reporter caricature (Glenda Farrell as Florence) as the heroine.  In fact, the tone of those two actors is rather at odds: Atwill plays it super straight, as one should in a horror film, whereas Farrell seems to think she's in a screwball comedy, a kind of low-rent version of The Front Page.  How you feel about this film will probably depend on whether you find her grating or not.  It's a little odd that she's listed second behind Fay Wray (who confused me by being the brunette of the two, as I think of her as the blonde in King Kong) because Wray has very little to do except be in peril at the climax (and then unleash a few of her patented screams).  I think most people have an idea of the main premise, but here's a sketch: the film starts on a stormy night in London in 1921, where Atwill is initially annoyed to be interrupted while sculpting in his Wax Museum, but then delighted because it's a friend wishing to show his work to an influential figure who, having seen his remarkably lifelike figures 

(all historical tableau, he is most proud of his Voltaire [with whom he admits to having long conversations, a worrying sign] and especially his beautiful Marie Antoinette) leaves the delighted Igor with a promise to recommend him for the Royal Academy.  But, lurking outside this whole time is a cigar-smoking villain, Igor's financial partner, who comes in complaining that the museum is losing money (because Igor insists on all this fancy stuff instead of the Chamber of Horrors stuff that the rival wax museum (did Madame Tussaud's already exist?) is cleaning up with, but that he has the perfect solution: burn the place down for the insurance!  Igor is understandably outraged (although he also seems to be under the impression that his wax creations are actually alive, so is perhaps even more outraged than is warranted) but Joe Worth (for that is the cigar-smoker's name) lights a piece of paper and in the ensuing tussle, fire breaks out all over.  Worth knocks Igor down and then locks him in from the outside.  Igor recovers but when last we see him he is surrounded by flames as his beautiful creations all melt like the head of a Nazi opening the Ark of the Covenant.  A pretty gripping opening sequence.  Suddenly we cut to a snowy New Year's 1933 (I think it's starting, not ending, but it's not clear), in New York, 12 years later.  An ambulance cuts through the throng and a body is loaded on to it.  The EMTs tell the reporters that it's a suicide.  We see a face that looks like Igor watching out of a window.  And then we cut to Florence sashaying into her editor's office (at the "New York Express") and being told that unless she comes up with a story she's fired.  There's a lot of hard-boiled dialog snapping back and forth that sounds pretty close to an invented parody of Jazz-age slang, but that's just how they roll.  She goes out in search of one and visits a police station where she is clearly viewed fondly by the old (Irish, natch) cops, one of whom tells her that there's a suspicion that the society gadabout Joan Gale whose body it was we saw earlier was probably not a suicide, and her recently ex-fiance, wealthy scion George Winton, has been hauled in under suspicion of knocking her off.  Delighted at the chance of a story, Florence dashes off to jail, where she is quickly convinced both of Winton's innocence and his suitability as her route out of poverty.  

Cut to her later in a bed in an attic apartment while her roommate, Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray), exercises and listens disapprovingly to Florence's mercenary marriage plans.  Coincidentally, Charlotte has a boyfriend who works for... Ivan Igor.  Yes, he survived the fire, but is now confined to a wheelchair, and his hands are now just immobile claws, so he has to get others to do his work.  However, with the help of an expert assistant Dr. Rasmussen (who is strangely disheveled) (he has nothing but scorn for Charlotte's boyfriend Ralph), he has almost finished recreating all those historical tableau.  All he needs now is Marie Antoinette.  And guess what?  When Charlotte visits Ralph, Igor sees that she is the spitting image of his Marie Antoinette.  (Just like a respected Judge who has strangely gone missing bore a remarkable resemblance to his Voltaire.)  

Well, Florence investigates, and Joan Gale's body has been stolen from the morgue!  And somehow a bootlegger is involved (George's, it so happens, and he is remarkably free about talking about him in front of the cops) and oh look, it's our old friend Joe Worth.  And there's a strange hideously disfigured individual moving coffins around in the bootlegger's basement.  And Rasmussen is caught emerging from that building.  And what's with Igor's creepy assistants (besides Ralph, of course)?  

And how is the wax museum going to do any better here NY than it did in London?  And how is Igor able to afford this huge property in central NY City with the biggest basement you ever saw, complete with bubbling cauldron of wax?  Well, watch it and see.  You won't regret it: the sets are good, the villain is great, Fay Wray can scream like nobody's business,

and Florence manages to get married in the end.

Film review: Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Talk about style over substance!  Well, I'm not sure that this lacked substance, but I'm not sure I understood most of it.  But it certainly had style coming out of its ears.  Cool Yakuzas in snazzy-colored suits!  Dancing to "Jazz" music!  Shootouts all over the place, including in front of an oncoming steam train!  

Pop art colors everywhere!  Crazy camera angles!  Extreme closeups on sunglasses!  A hero with his own theme tune that he sings/whistles to let the bad guys know that he's coming/they haven't succeeded in killing him!  Apparently the directer, Seijun Suzuki was a constant thorn in the flesh of his studio, who kept trying to get him just to churn out profitable B-pictures, but he kept being more and more imaginative and playing with the form.  They'd even severely trimmed his budget for this one, but you wouldn't know it.  It's wildly imaginative - I'm just not sure it's a coherent picture.  Here's basically what I understood. The hero, Tetsuya (AKA Tetsu the Phoenix), was the right hand man for a Yakuza boss Kurata, who decided to go straight and bought a building in Tokyo.  The film begins with Tetsu being beaten up by the members of a rival gang because he refuses to fight back, this being part of going legit.  Tetsu at this point always wears a sky-blue suit (which seems to survive the savage beating fairly unscathed - he's not called "The Phoenix" for nothing), while meanwhile, the head of the rival gang, Otsuka always wears a bright red suit (along with his designer shades).  Tetsu idolizes Kurata and is fiercely loyal to him, viewing him as a father figure.  Kurata, meanwhile, is struggling a bit to pay off the mortgage on the building to the person he's buying it off, Yoshii (no, not this one), and the money is coming due immediately.  Tetsu goes to Yoshii, who seems only to have one employee, an annoyingly giggly (and comics-obsessed) secretary and cuts a deal whereby Kurata only has to pay some of it now and can promise to pay the rest monthly.  Yoshii is reluctant, but is impressed by Tetsu's loyalty to Kurata, and his offer to lay down his life if they can't repay, and agrees.  But it turns out the giggly secretary is an Otsuka plant, and Otsuka calls up pretending to be Tetsu and lures Yoshii to his office (which is above the aforementioned groovy "Jazz" club - lots of dancing in silhouette), when Yoshii is there and realizes it's not Kurata, Otsuka claims that Kurata has sold his debt to him.  Yoshii still doesn't believe him but is bullied into signing over the deed for the full sum owed in cash.  But then Yoshii is shot in the back, just as Tetsu arrives, having worked out what has happened.  However, while chasing after Otsuka and his men, he falls down an elevator shaft (!) and appears to be left for dead.  MEANWHILE, Kurata arrives and accidentally shoots the giggly secretary (she deserved it).  This seems to produce a kind of stalemate (at least, it does when Tetsu escapes the elevator shaft and comes back to save Kurata from Otsuka's men) where Otsuka can't make trouble because otherwise he'll be shopped for shooting Yoshii, and Kurata can't make trouble because he shot the secretary.  And this is where I got a bit confused, but I think the idea is that Tetsu arranges for other gangs to join up with Kurata (so he's no longer legit?) to protect him from Otsuka, and meanwhile he agrees to take the rap for the secretary and goes on the lam (or, "drifts"), despite the obvious anguish this causes "his girl," a nightclub singer Chiharu (who has her own theme song, that we hear repeatedly).  So off he goes, in his pretty blue suit and speckless white coat and shoes, to roam Japan.  While on his travels, he is chased by Otsuka's main hitman Tatsuzo The Viper, but keeps escaping him, even when they face off in front of that oncoming train (although this appears to result in the Viper losing a couple of fingers - it's not clear).  Along the way he encounters another ex-Yakuza, who used to be a rival, nicknamed "Shooting Star," who helps him out, 

but they can't truly get along because Shooting Star scoffs at Tetsu's persisting loyalty, and says the best thing he ever did was cut all ties and go it alone, while Tetsu is morally appalled by this stance.  They meet up again in the last city Tetsu goes to, where an old ally, Umetani, takes him in, and they all take part in a massive fight in a western-themed bar (complete with zaftig white exotic dancer, who takes quite a shine to Tetsu).  But as they are celebrating, we cut to Tokyo and we see Otsuka cutting a deal with Kurata 

whereby the latter gets to have his building back if he betrays Tetsu.  And horror-of-horrors, he does!  Turns out Shooting Star is right about the no-honor-among-thieves business.  Kurata calls Umetani and demands that he off Tetsu, but Shooting Star helps him escape (and Umetani lets him).  Cue final shootout back in Tokyo, in the Roman-themed nightclub Chiharu (whom Otsuka wants for himself) sings at.  

Apparently this movie was fairly radical because of its cynical attitude to the Yakuza honor code.  That and all the disjointed psychedelic grooviness.