Supervixens (1975) *

 

Way back in the day, before internet porn, even before hard-core pornography was legalized, people had to get their jollies from soft-core porn flicks. These took a variety of forms, based on the laws of the time, from the nudist camp films of the '50s, to the nudie-cutie films of the '60s, to the sexploitation/grindhouse movies of the '70s and '80s. One of the kings of sexploitation was Russ Meyer, probably best known for 1970's “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and 1965's “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” His trademarks were minimal plot, lots of sex, and big, giant titties. “Supervixens” features all of the above.

I'm going to spoil some of what little plot there is to this film, just to give you a good idea what you would be getting into. I figure the statute of limitations for spoilers has run out on a 50-year-old movie. The story is about a gas station attendant named Clint, whose life is complicated by every woman he meets wanting to bang him. And they all have big boobs. Clint gets into a fight with his jealous wife, Angel (Shari Eubank). While Clint drowns his sorrows at a bar, Angel seduces a cop (character actor Charles Napier). When the cop can't perform, Angel taunts him until he brutally murders her and pins the murder on Clint. Clint goes on the run, meeting a series of big-titted women, until he meets his dream girl, who is also played by Shari Eubank.

“Supervixens” features lots of beautiful women with big, natural tits, with the occasional glimpse of a soft penis thrown in for the sake of equal rights. The film also has a sense of humor. It would be a fun, naked sex romp if not for the frequent, casual violence, especially against women (although Clint takes his share of beatings, too). The jarring changes in tone when the movie goes from silly nudity to casual brutality are off-putting, at least for me. There are probably some worthwhile cult-classic sexploitation films out there, but for me, this isn't one of them.

1 star out of 5

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025) ****

 

1984's “This Is Spinal Tap” holds a special place in the pantheon of great movies. The fake documentary about a fading heavy metal band took advantage of the near-self-parody of rock-n-roll itself. Written by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, the genius of the film is that it recognizes that the more seriously these bands take themselves, the funnier they are. It was only necessary to tweak the rock-n-roll formula slightly to make it hilarious. Led Zeppelin's “Stairway to Heaven” is a truly great song, but throw in just a couple extra elf references, and you've got Spinal Tap's “Stonehenge.” As for the rest of Spinal Tap's work, I could mix songs like “Big Bottom” and “Bitch School” into a playlist of real heavy metal songs and you would have trouble telling which songs were real and which were the parodies.”This Is Spinal Tap” is as perfect as a film can get, and it set the standard for fake documentaries. (Christopher Guest, of course, would go on to make “mockumentaries” his trademark, with films like “Best in Show”.) And in the sense that professional wrestling is not “fake” per se, Spinal Tap the band may be made up, but it is not fake. Guest, McKean, and Shearer are actually talented musicians, and the songs and albums are pretty good, besides being funny.

Thus, it was with some trepidation that I approached the new sequel, “Spinal Tap: The End Continues”. There is a great legacy at stake here, and I didn't want to see something unworthy. A couple of questions arise: 1) Why did it take so many years to make a sequel? 2) Why do a sequel at all? The answer to the first question is legal issues. Reiner, Guest, McKean, and Shearer have been fighting for decades with their film studio over the rights and profits from the original film and music. It wasn't until 2021 that the original creators regained control over their work. As for why they made a sequel, Hollywood never needs an excuse to do that! Fortunately, they made something worthwhile.

The sequel is another mockumentary. Filmmaker Martin DiBergi (Reiner) revisits his old subjects, learning that the band's old management contract, now held by their late manager's daughter, stipulates that they must reunite for a final concert. DiBergi visits the estranged band members in their new lives, finding Nigel Tufnel (Guest) running a cheese shop, Derek Smalls (Shearer) selling exotic glues, and David St. Hubbins (McKean) writing on-hold music. The bandmates meet up in New Orleans for their reunion concert, and old grievances quickly create tension.

Is “Spinal Tap II” as good as the original? Hell no! Nothing is going to be as good as the original Spinal Tap. Even so, the sequel is hilarious and fun. It goes without saying that you should see the first movie first. Anyone who hasn't seen the original Spinal Tap needs to crawl out from whatever rock they are living under and catch up with the rest of the free world. Then definitely watch the sequel. It is not as funny or as quotable as the original, but it's a good time, with new music and surprise cameos, and it takes the story new places.

4 stars out of 5

Blink Twice (2024) ****

 

“Blink Twice” is one of those Big Twist movies that are hard to talk about without spoiling the surprise. Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat play Frida and Jess, catering waitresses who get invited to join a billionaire (Channing Tatum) on his private island. The getaway is like a dream until strange inconsistencies start to make the girls question what is really going on.

The film marks the directorial debut of actress Zoe Kravitz, who was so good in the 2020 re-boot of “High Fidelity.” She co-wrote the script with “High Fidelity” writer E.T. Feigenbaum. I have to say, as good an actress as Kravitz is (Check her out in “Kimi”!), she is an outstanding director. She maintains an impressive level of suspense, creating a nightmare on a beautiful island, and makes good use of an outstanding cast, including Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachlan, and the gorgeous Adria Arjona (“Hit Man”). At the risk of spoilers, I won't say anything more, except that this is a top-notch directorial debut. Check it out!

4 stars out of 5

Sinners (2025) ****

 

From writer/director Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”, “Creed”), “Sinners” is an exploration of race and family issues, wrapped up in a vampire movie.

Michael B. Jordan, a frequent Coogler collaborator, plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, a couple of 1930s gangsters recently moved back to the small Mississippi town where they grew up. Flush with money and booze from ripping off their Chicago Mob bosses, the brothers buy an old sawmill and convert it into a juke joint. They recruit musicians, including their cousin Sammie (Miles Catton), and run into some old flames, and things seem to be going well until opening night gets crashed by a clan of vampires.

“Sinners” probably doesn't hold up to a close plot analysis, but enjoyed on the surface, it's a hoot! A talented, good-looking cast and a great soundtrack of blues and folk music make the 2h 17m run-time pass more easily than it should. I got the impression somewhere that the movie is a musical, but it isn't; it just has a ton of music and dancing in it.

The most interesting character in the film is Stack's ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld). She is one quarter Black, which, by the Jim Crow laws of the time, made her legally Black, and therefore a second-class citizen. She is so light, though, that she passes as White, and she really has no choice but to do so. If a White-looking woman like her were seen with a Black man at that time, it would arouse racist anger. So she is married to a white man and lives in constant danger of being outed as Black.

Meanwhile, Smoke and Stack have learned that getting away from Mississippi did not mean getting away from racism. Chicago doesn't have the Klan, but the city has plenty of ways to remind the brothers what color they are. As Stack tells his guitar-playing cousin when asked why they would move back to the South, “Better the devil you know.”

“Sinners” explores these racial issues, but it does not belabor them. Ryan Coogler knows how to keep the story going with action, sex, and, of course, some fantastic music. If the film leans a bit superficial, erring on the side of entertaining rather than preaching, well, that's no sin. At the end of the day, “Sinners” is a good mix of food for thought with candy for the eyes and ears.

4 stars out of 5

Mickey 17 (2025) **1/2

 

Continuing his cinematic exploration of themes of class and inequality, Bong Joon Ho's latest features his signature blend of dark humor and social commentary.

Robert Pattinson plays Mickey, a guy so desperate to escape Earth that he signs up for an interstellar colony in the only position he could get: “Expendable”. The job involves a controversial technology that scans a person's body and mind and is then able to print out exact copies of them, complete with memories. Banned on Earth, the tech is allowed in space because it makes someone like Mickey, well, expendable. He can be sent out on a task that means certain death, and then after he dies, he can be printed out again for another mission.

This job makes Mickey extremely valuable, but it also marks him as the least skilled member of the expedition. Despite this low status, a dweeby personality, and a whiny voice, Mickey manages to score a smokin' hot girlfriend (Naomi Ackie) and to have another hottie (Anamaria Vartolomei) interested in him. Despite the pain of repeated deaths and the terrible food aboard ship, a guy like Mickey could do worse.

Things do get worse when Mickey 17, the seventeenth version of himself, is left for dead in a crevasse, but manages to survive with help from the tardigrade-esque life forms on his new planet. By the time he makes it back to the ship, another copy, Mickey 18, has already been printed, and the trouble starts.

With the sensibility of a young-adult novel, “Mickey 17” explores the usual sci-fi themes. Things on Earth are so crappy that the hoi polloi are desperate to leave and start over somewhere. Of course, they bring with them all the same prejudices and power imbalances that made Earth intolerable. This includes a healthy dose of hypocritical religious fervor, which dictates that “multiples” like Mickeys 17 and 18 are an abomination and must be destroyed. The same dogma dictates that the life forms on the new planet are to be viewed merely as meat, and the young women of the expedition primarily as walking uteruses (uteri?).

I've only seen two other films by Bong Joon Ho. 2013's "Snowpiercer" was a visual spectacle, but I found it hollow, all light and no heat. 2019's "Parasite" on the other hand, is a masterpiece, a dark, funny, social satire. “Mickey 17” falls somewhere in between for me, entertaining enough, but definitely not a classic. The whole production feels like it is aimed at the PG-13 crowd, meaning teens young enough that the movie's themes will feel new. Presumably, teens will find the affected performances by Mark Ruffalo and Robert Pattinson humorous and endearing respectively, rather than just weird and annoying. Teens will presumably find the aliens, who look like water bears (tardigrades) adorable, whereas I found myself making unflattering comparisons to Ewoks. The film's biggest flaw, however, is its length. The quality of the storytelling here simply does not justify a runtime of 2 hours and 17 minutes. It would have been a better film if it were about 30% shorter. I don't want to have to look back and think the same thing about my review, so that's all I will say about “Mickey 17”.

2.5 stars out of 5

The Dead Don't Die (2019) **

 

At this point, we've had every kind of zombie movie imaginable: slow zombies, fast zombies, zombies that are truly dead, zombies that are actually living, zombie romance, sympathetic zombies, and definitely plenty of zombie comedies. I'm not sure we needed another zombie movie, let alone a comedy, but we got one, courtesy of writer/director Jim Jarmusch ("Down By Law").

The film follows a couple of small-town cops (Bill Murray and Adam Driver) on the day of a zombie apocalypse. Is it good? I'm reminded of a Beavis and Butthead scene where Beavis turns to Butthead during a music video and asks, “Is this good?” Butthead thinks for a second and replies, “Well, it's loud.” With “The Dead Don't Die,” Jarmusch assembles an amazing A-list cast that, in addition to Murray and Driver, includes Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Iggy Pop, and more recognizable names than I care to list. So much talent, in service of such an inconsequential film. This is the second zombie comedy I am aware of Bill Murray being in, and this one is not nearly as entertaining as "Zombieland."  The film has funny moments, but quite often what we get is cleverness masquerading as humor. Still, it's good the movie is at least somewhat funny, as the nihilistic plot fails to make us care about any of the characters or their fates.

I'm not even sure why Jim Jarmusch made the film. He admits in an interview that he doesn't like zombie movies. Maybe zombies are simply so popular that he felt compelled to make his contribution to a genre that just keeps coming back around. One thing we have learned from zombie stories is that you have to kill the head. If you kill the head, you kill the zombie. What Jim Jarmusch teaches us here is that, when it comes to the zombie genre itself, even if you remove the brains and the heart, it refuses to die.

2 stars out of 5

Let's Start A Cult (2024) ***1/2

 

Cults seem to be having a moment. Netflix is full of documentaries about this or that cult, and depending on how you look at it, some would say that cultish thinking has gone mainstream.

In “Let's Start a Cult,” Stavros Halkias plays Chip, a schlubby incompetent so despised by the other members of the cult he is in that they all decide to exclude him when they commit ritual suicide. Despondent over missing the big event, Chip tries to fit back into regular life, but after the certainty and meaning of cult life, regular family life and a regular job just don't cut it for Chip. With a partner, he sets about trying to form his own cult.

Written by Halkias and Wes Haney, who star, and Ben Kitnick, who directs, the film started out as a short. It was a fun project by 3 friends, who then fleshed it out into a feature film on a shoestring budget. The movie manages to take the serious subject of suicide cults and make it funny while actually touching on some realistic points about cults. Chip is impatient to get to the part where they all “cross over” together, but his mentor (Haney) walks him through the steps. First, they find vulnerable, broken people. Then they feed those people's egos and give them the sense of family that they have been missing. Only then can they start introducing the supernatural beliefs that will define the cult.

We seem to have a need for a fat comedian in pop culture. I guess everything is just inherently funnier when a fat person is doing it. We once had Seth Rogen, but then he lost weight, so we had Jonah Hill, who then went on to trim down himself. Right now, we are lucky enough to have the delightful Harvey Guillen (from the “What We Do In the Shadows” TV show), but, you know, he could go on diet any day. Fortunately, we have Stavros Halkias waiting in the wings!

3.5 stars out of 5

Saltburn (2023) ***1/2

 

In this interloper story, Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, a new freshman at Oxford, struggling to fit in with the snobbish prep-school types. Then he meets Felix (Jacob Elordi), a tall, handsome, wealthy heir for whom life, girls, friends, and everything seems to come easy. Felix takes Oliver under his wing and winds up inviting him to spend the summer at the family estate, called Saltburn. Over the summer, Oliver nurses his crush on Felix and gets entwined in the family drama.

“Saltburn” is the second film from writer/director Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”). In it, she explores issues of class and acculturation. Oliver, from humbler circumstances, is surrounded by rich kids at Oxford. These kids went to fancy prep schools, where they didn't just learn math and English; they learned the right social manners and the right clothes to wear to fit in with each other. Oliver is outside of his class, and he finds it lonely, indeed. The question is, what is he willing to do to climb the ladder.

The movie is brilliant in many respects. The supporting cast, including Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant (“Withnail and I”), is superb. I'm not sure if I liked Barry Keoghan's performance or not. His flat affect and creepy stares are off-putting, but maybe that's just what the character demanded. I will say that there are a few gratuitously gross scenes that I could have done without. I still find myself thinking about the movie days later, however, so it is definitely a film that leaves an impression.

3.5 stars out of 5

A Complete Unknown (2024) ***

 

I generally shy away from biopics and historical movies. Filmmakers always take artistic license, and storytelling on screen is so much more compelling than dry, written history, that the movie version of the truth becomes gospel, and the actual events get left behind. Sometimes I can't help myself, though, especially when great music is involved.

Loosely based on the book Dylan Goes Electric!, “A Complete Unknown” begins in 1961, with a young Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) arriving in New York with nothing but a guitar case full of dreams. He seeks out the ailing Woody Guthrie and impresses him and Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) with his songwriting. Seeger introduces him to the local open-mic circuit, where Bob meets Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and begins to make a name for himself. The rest, as they say, is history. The film hits highlights of the next 4 years of Dylan's romantic and song-writing life, culminating in the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan, now the biggest star of the folk movement, enrages his fans by playing electric rock.

This is NOT Bob Dylan's story. Director James Mangold (“Girl, Interrupted” “Walk the Line”) takes massive artistic license, and the film even includes fictitious elements that were suggested by Dylan himself. According to Mangold, the movie is “not really a Bob Dylan biopic. It’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time in the early ’60s in New York … and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life [and] becomes a star."

Mangold can tell himself that all he wants, but he gave his “wanderer” the name of a famous public figure, and it's impossible for casual viewers to know what is fact and what is fantasy here. To the extent that people see the movie, and its many Oscar nominations ensure that many people will, this version of Dylan's story will become part of the legend. Viewers of the film will forever believe that Bob Dylan got his start by sitting down in a hospital room and impressing Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger with a song, when, in fact, that scene never happened.

Does it matter? Some would argue that the important thing is that the movie captures the essence of Dylan. Changing a bunch of historical facts makes the story better and allows us to relax into what is really a love letter to the music. And they definitely got the music right in this film. Chalamet and Barbaro sing and play guitar, and their numbers were recorded live, to great effect. You may get a little debate here and there about who America's greatest songwriter is, but I think the general consensus would land on Bob Dylan. “A Complete Unknown” really revels in his most iconic songs, giving us the chance to hear them as people did back in the '60s, for the first time.

I fully enjoyed the songs and great performances while watching the film. Chalamet really embodies Dylan, and Monica Barbaro is a beautiful actress with a great voice. Afterwards, though, reading about how the story plays fast and loose with historical facts, I felt fooled. To those who say that the legend matters more than the truth, I would say that we are currently living in a political reality that is the result of that way of thinking.

If you want to see a great, fictional movie about the songwriting process, full of good music and acting, check out one of John Carney's movies, like "Once," "Begin Again," or "Sing Street."  I say leave stories about real people to the biographers.

3 stars out of 5

Companion (2025) ****

 

This is one where you really might enjoy it more going in without any spoilers, so I won't say much about the plot. Sophie Thatcher plays Iris, who goes with her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) to join friends at a remote lake house. Does the weekend take a left turn? You bet it does!

Sophie Thatcher seems to be having a moment. I first saw her in 2018's "Prospect," where she was excellent as a child actress. Now, just in the last few months, she has knocked it out of the park in 2 outstanding movies: first "Heretic" and now this film. If she doesn't do a bad movie soon, she is in danger of becoming a real star.

“Companion” is the first feature film for TV writer/director Drew Hancock, and he shows a lot of promise, too. This isn't a movie that will change your life; it's just a solid, well-paced thriller that is loads of fun to watch. The cast is excellent, including Harvey Guillen (who plays Guillermo on the TV series “What We Do In the Shadows”). I can't really discuss aspects of the story without giving away the surprises, so I'll just say “watch it!”

4 stars out of 5