A Great Indie Film...and then some others...Including a Great Horror Film Addition

"Blue Ruin"

starring: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargeaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson
directed and written by: Jeremy Saulnier

It’s clear from the outset that Dwight (played by Macon Blair, a rather unknown actor turning in a stunning performance) is a ruin, although we have to observe him for a while before the film discloses what caused such human wreckage. Disheveled and unkempt, Dwight is a loner who sleeps in the backseat of a bullet-riddled car that’s parked somewhere in the Delaware dunes.

He slips into unoccupied houses to bathe, which is where we first come upon him. Wordlessly, we witness his solitary routine, and we have no idea whether the man is merely eccentric, down on his luck, or flat-out crazy. Then a sympathetic cop gives him some news and Dwight bursts into action like a man with a plan. What a great build up and opening sequences for a film! 

Dwight’s parents were murdered when he was a child, and the news he receives is that the man who went to jail for the crime is being released from prison. Dwight cleans up, trades in his aluminum cans for cash, pulls the gas can out of the car’s trunk, and puts the key into the ignition. He’s off on what proves to be a revenge tale with no end. Avenging his parents’ death only leads to a turnabout in revenge from the murderer’s family. Now Dwight’s sister and her young family aren’t safe. An eye for an eye: It’s the American way.

Dwight tows the line perfectly from the audience giving him sympathy and wanting to tell him our disgust in his plan for revenge and how selfish he is being. By being selfish, he is putting the rest of his family at risk. Dwight, as a film character, is complex. The film isn't just about his story and how it plays out. It's more about him, as a person.

This is a great film that was easy to enjoy, even for the short length.

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"The Babysitter"
starring: Alicia Silverstone, Jeremy London, J.T. Walsh, Lee Garlington, Nicky Katt, Lois Chiles, George Segal
written and directed by: Guy Ferlund

Back in 1995, apparently Lifetime was still capable of convincing women that ALL men are evil creatures and have the potential to rape any woman, because men are clearly only able to think about sick sexual fantasies because "The Babysitter" was a made-for-TV movie starring Alicia Silverstone (the "It Girl" of the early and mid-90s), but unfortunately she was never a decent actress (except for "Clueless" which might have to do with the fact that she had a great script and a great director).

I cannot even begin to really discuss the plot other than to say Alicia's character, simply named the Babysitter, is the "victim" of several men's sexual fantasies, including the husband (played by J.T. Walsh, very sick indeed) who is going to some party with his wife at another rich couple's house. But really the focus is on Mark and Jack (the Babysitter's boyfriend, a bit aloof and geeky, played by Jeremy London). Now their story plays out a bit like a cheap version of "Othello" but the script is definitely not smart enough to really convey that at all. Mark is suave in his ways of playing with Jack's internal fears and jealousy simply because he has a beautiful teenage girlfriend and if guys that age aren't having sex, they are certainly thinking about it or thinking about how they could be having it. The thing is, his girlfriend hasn't allowed him to have sex with her, but apparently Mark claims to have had sex with her.

The film is just an awful mess from start to finish. Acting. Writing. Cinematography. The editing of sexual fantasies mixed in with the story that's happening.

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"Dead Silence"
starring: Amber Valetta, Ryan Kwanten, Donnie Walhberg, Michael Fairman
directed by: James Wan

You could call this a hacked version of the Saw series, but its filmmakers, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, are the two hacks behind that macabre franchise. The plot arc and twist within a twist convention are identical. It even has Donnie Wahlberg as a grizzled cop, which he also played in Saw 2 and 3. About the only difference is the pissed-off ventriloquist subbing for the wooden puppet head known as Jigsaw. But Wan and Whannell do know how to creep you out. I've never been a fan of puppets (let alone dummies), and that's a known fact amongst everyone who knows me. So, it took a lot for me to want to watch this film, other than simple intrigue. 

The opening, where a young woman is gored by a dummy, hangs masterfully on its own. In response, her husband (Ryan Kwanten) returns to his home town to confront his estranged father (Bob Gunton) about the family’s past with a puppeteer (Judith Roberts) who wanted her dolls to be more than wood and lacquer. Just who’s the victim and where the blame lies gets twisted around to the point of inanity. And the strings of manipulation don’t add up.


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"The Naked Gun"
starring: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson
directed by: David Zucker
written by: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker

Let it be known: You laugh, and then you laugh at yourself for laughing. Some of the jokes are incredibly stupid. Most of them are dumber than dumb. Yet this is not simply a string of one-liners. There is a certain manic logic to the progression of the film, as the plot leads us from Yasser Arafat to Reggie Jackson, with a pause while Queen Elizabeth II passes a hot dog to the person sitting on the other side of her at Dodger Stadium.

The movie stars Leslie Nielsen, star (it says in the press information) of a thousand TV shows, as Lt. Frank Drebin, an ace lawman who has been taken hostage at a summit conference of all of America’s enemies. He frees himself, decks them with right crosses to the jaw and makes a patriotic speech about the American Way. When he is returned by jet aircraft to American soil at last, the sun is shining, the band is playing and the crowds are cheering. But they’re not at the airport to greet him - they’re there for Weird Al Yankovic.

And so on. “The Naked Gun” is the work of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, the same firm that brought us “Airplane!,” and the vastly underrated “Top Secret!,” (1984). (In that one, a mortally wounded spy lay in a dark alley behind the Iron Curtain and handed a colleague an envelope that absolutely had to be postmarked no later than midnight. It was addressed to Publisher’s Clearing House.) These are the same guys behind the short-lived TV series “Police Squad,” which has attained cult status on video, and “The Naked Gun” is in the same style of nonstop visual and spoken puns, interlaced with satire, slapstick and scatological misunderstandings.

Nielsen is soon investigating a fishy scam being masterminded by a criminal named Victor Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban). Montalban’s assistant is the sensuous Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).

Through complications too nonsensical to relate, Montalban’s plans involve a plot to assassinate the queen at a Dodgers home game, and Nielsen goes undercover - first posing as the opera star who sings “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and then as the home-plate umpire. It’s around here that Reggie Jackson turns up.

The wisdom of directing the assassination attempt at an actual public figure is questionable, but it must be said that the use of a Queen Elizabeth look-alike inspires some very funny moments, most of them centering on the fact that she is appalled to be attending a baseball game.

Other famous walk-ons in the movie include not only Jackson but O. J. Simpson and, in a very funny sequence, the late John Houseman, who plays a driving instructor who is unflappable in the face of disaster. “The Naked Gun” is an utterly goofy movie and a lot of fun, and don’t let anyone tell you all the jokes before you go.

The film is ridiculous, but it's funny in the same way that "Hot Shots!" is funny. I remember watching both of those films back in the '90s as a teenage boy and laughing a lot. As a thirtysomething guy, it's not as funny.
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"Wayne's World"
starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brain Doyle-Murray
written by: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey

The movie is inspired by "Saturday Night Live's" long-running parody of local access cable TV. I was a little too young to appreciate or even be able to view the original skits when they ran on Saturday Night Live in the early '90s. I grew to love and appreciate Saturday Night Live in middle school and the subsequent stars like Myers (thanks to this film and I hate to admit it but "Austin Powers") and most notably Adam Sandler! 

"Wayne's World" originates from the paneled basement room of its host, Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers), who looks to be in his late 20s but still lives at home with his parents in Aurora. Wayne's sidekick is Garth Algar (Dana Carvey), looking uncannily like Arte Johnson and operating with the brain power of a clever 7-year-old. The two of them interview strange guests, drool over posters of their favorite models and use the word "excellent" a whole lot. This is definitely a teenage boy's perfect film. 

Director Penelope Spheeris and writers Myers, Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner have grafted a plot of overwhelming predictability: An ad executive (Rob Lowe) spots their show, and sees it as the ideal vehicle for a client (Brian Doyle-Murray) who owns a chain of video arcades. Wayne and Garth don't want to sell out for the big bucks (individual cashier's checks for $5,000), but get outsmarted. And meanwhile Wayne falls in love with a foxy Chinese chick (Tia Carrere) who's the lead singer in a heavy metal band. Of course Lowe tries to win her away from him, which leads up to the final emotional showdown, etc., etc.

The plot is not exactly the point here. It's only a clothesline. What is funny about "Wayne's World" - sometimes really funny - are the dialogue and sight gags. The movie wants to be a laffaminit extravaganza like the Zucker & Abrahams productions (funny and a complete coincidence that I happened to watch "The Naked Gun" prior to this film), but with slyer humor, more inside jokes, throwaway references and just plain goofiness, as when the characters occasionally break into their own language. Some of the biggest laughs in the film could not possibly be described, because their humor depends entirely on the fact that the filmmakers were weird enough to go for them in the first place.

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"You're Next"
starring: Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Amy SeimetzTi West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton
directed by: Adam Wingard
written by: Simon Barrett

A wealthy family gets together at a remote home for what appears to be the first time in a while. There's Dad (Rob Moran) and Mom (Barbara Crampton), who is prone to panic attacks and requires medicating. There's Prodigal Son Drake (Joe Swanberg) and his slightly annoyed wife Kelly (Margaret Laney). There's beloved daughter Aimee (Amy Siemetz) and her new boyfriend, a filmmaker named Tariq (director Ti West). There's youngest son Felix (Nicholas Tucci) and his new goth girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn). And finally, there's Crispian (AJ Bowen), the son who turned away from his family's wealth and became a college professor, and his girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson), the biggest outsider to the group. Everything is going fine: there's some conversation, some awkward tension between siblings—regular family stuff—but then something comes crashing through the window. Before you know it, there are men outside the house wearing only animal masks, armed and intent on breaking in to kill everyone.

You're Next isn't about a whole lot more than it's about. This is not to say it contains no subtext; director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett are clearly interested in blowing up some genre conventions and tweaking the traditional role of the Final Girl. But that stuff is secondary. More than anything, it's a movie that's incredibly good at being scary, suspenseful, funny, entertaining, and FUN; a testament to having solid foundations—good writing, good direction, good cast. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, it just rolls it really well.

There's a case to be made that You're Next is secretly about relationships—the things we do and do not tell our partners, and the ways in which revealing those details can impact what we previously thought was a happy union. I know none of that sounds very scary, so please don't think the movie is some Kate Hudson romantic comedy passing itself off as a horror film. The horror here works; Wingard knows how to set up and pay off tension for maximum effect, and You're Next doesn't pull any punches with its intensity. But what makes the film special is that it isn't only about scares and intensity. It's very, very funny and a whole lot of fun.

There are so many clever touches to You're Next that only really become clear once you've seen the whole thing play out. None of the characters are what we first believe them to be (for better and for worse), and the movie subverts all our expectations in small ways, even though it's not about being subversive. It's about delivering, and You're Next delivers.