jamesrupert2014

Chris, a young Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) visits the prosperous family of his White girlfriend (Allison Williams) only to discover a horrible secret behind the welcoming faces. Although simplistic, the core 'psychological-horror' storyline has a fine creepy-vibe, is very well written and lensed, and is buttressed by a uniformly excellent cast (Williams' predatory prettiness particularly lends itself to her role and Catherine Keener nails 'bland-creepiness' as her hypno-therapist mother). Much has been made about the film as a commentary on race relations, social asymmetries, stereotyping, privilege, Black victimhood and etc., and much of the cleverness of the script comes from riffing on such topical issues but (IMO) the racial spin is the most contrived and nonsensical part of the plot. At one point Chris asks why Black people are targeted and (IMO) the answer seems to relate more to what the writer/director Jordon Peele wanted to 'say' about America than to any internal plot-logic (any further comments would necessitate spoilers, and this is a film best watched 'uninformed').

Almost killed when a jet engine inexplicably falls out of the sky, Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) starts experiencing apparently shifting realities including visions of a demonic-rabbit. This is a very well made psychological-science-fiction film with a great ensemble cast, a good script, and a clever storyline. To avoid spoilers, I will just add that pulling off a satisfying resolution to a plot like this is challenging, but writer/director Richard Kelly did a pretty good job. The film warrants close attention and a bit of 'head-scratching', but there is no shortage of post hoc analysis on-line for anyone whose attention wandered (or consider the 'directors cut' (which I have not seen) that allegedly includes a lot more expository material).

A killer is haunting foggy London streets, and it may be the suspicious lodger who seems captivated by the landlord's lovely blonde daughter. This early Hitchcock silent melodrama is more interesting as an example of the master's early work than as a crime-thriller film. The acting has the stagy-histrionic look typical of the silent genre and the story is too simplistic to be particularly compelling, but there is some fine cinematography and the occasional pleasing deco flourish. I started to watch the version recently shown on 'Silver Screen Classics' but the image quality was so poor that I switched to an on-line version.