Drag Me To Hell (2009), Sam Raimi ****

Drag me to Hell. Indeed. Only it wasn’t hell. And I wasn’t dragged. In fact, this was a breath of fresh air!

When I heard that Sam Raimi was returning to horror, I must admit, like everyone, I had high expectations.

I'm happy to report folks that they were not only met, but surpassed!

The thing that struck me most about this film-going-experience was just how fun it was (as was Army of Darkness and Darkman before that). The scares, the comedy, the pacing, everything: a perfect brew…as only Raimi can do.

Drag me to Hell. I saw it three times, it inspired a Raimi retrospective, and most importantly, it got me to pick up the pen and write a friggin’ horror film.

Les Diaboliques (1955), H.R. Clouzot ****

The title translates as THE DEVILS - but who exactly are the devils? Nothing is quite what it seems in H.R. Clouzot’s classic and highly influential crime thriller.

Set at a boys’ boarding school, the film centers around two women who plot the perfect murder. Christina (Vera Clouzot) is wife to the school’s cruel and sadistic headmaster Michel (Paul Meurisse); and despite her ailing heart condition, Michel insists on having and open relationship with his mistress and fellow school teacher Nicole (Simone Signoret). But when Nicole begins complaining of Michel’s cruelty and abuse, the two women conspire against him and begin planning his demise.

The film begins with an intense and foreboding score; complete with out-of-tune vocals and thunderous organs. We then get our first shot of “water”: a paper boat floating peacefully in a puddle. Suddenly, the boat is trampled by a passing vehicle. This foreshadowing is followed by many references and allusions to water. Naturally, water is an element associated with purifying, but Clouzot cleverly turns that assumption on its head; in fact, he downright drives it home!

The two conspirators fill a bathtub in order to drown the drugged and unsuspecting Michel – the loud rush of water drowning the characters with tension. Then after the body mysteriously refuses to surface, they find themselves draining an entire pool where the body was dumped and made to look like an accident/suicide. There is even the amplified and ominous “drip” from the bathtub after the murder has been committed; a great devise that Mario Bava might’ve picked up on for his horror classic BLACK SABBATH (1963).

Being a masterfully directed film, LES DIABOLIQUES was apparently a great influence on Alfred Hitchcock who later used the films same authors for VERTIGO (1958). On a more trivial note, the film landed at number 49 on Bravo’s 100 SCARIEST MOMENTS!

No Country for Old Men (2007), Joel and Ethan Cohen **1/2

Whether the film is good or bad, if it's the Cohen brothers, you can always count on some great sequences - of which there are plenty here. Unfortunately, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN didn’t live up to the hype, but it’s still entertaining as hell.

It's apparent that the Cohen brothers possess a deep understanding and appreciation of cinemas past. Just observe their effective use of silence, sound and framing - all of which comes from filmmakers that have already written the language of cinema. The Cohen’s are somehow able to look at directors like Hitchcock and Leone and apply their techniques without ripping them off. They watch, they study, they learn. They harvest these elements of effective story telling and tension-building, then stamp them with their own distinct style and look.

The plot for OLD MEN is very simple: Man stumbles upon drug deal gone wrong; man finds a case full of cash; man is pursued by ruthless assassin bent on getting the cash back.

Within this simple plot line are plenty of great moments filled with tension and suspense, but the film ultimately falls apart at the end. I invested a lot in these characters and wanted some kind of resolution.

Now I understand that “independent film” doesn’t always agree with Hollywood’s “happy ending”; their argument being: life is unpredictable and film should sometimes model life. But then I have to ask: why even tell a story? Stories always end. Stories are not life. Life is life. And stories are stories. A down beat ending is one thing, but no ending at all is another thing completely! The whole argument feels a bit pompous.

I sense you can feel my frustration!

But this actually says something positive about NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. The characters were well written, the performances were excellent and the simplistic plot was exciting and engaging - even if at times the writing felt a bit sloppy. Since I’m conflicted however, I’m giving the film exactly half the stars it could have gotten with a proper ending.

Control (2007), Anton Corbijn ****

Joy Division will always be a part of my life - even if I don’t listen to them nearly as much as I use to. Some ten years back I found myself immersed in the electronic arrangements and driving beats of a very popular 80’s band called New Order. I soon discovered that New Order was once a little known cult band named Joy Division.

Fascinated by the drastic stylistic and tonal differences between the two bands, I decided to pick up the Ian Curtis (lead singer of Joy Division) biography TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE and started reading it on a trip to Paris.

While in Paris I spent an entire day and two rolls of black & white film at Pere-Lachaise; the final resting place of many artists, poets and musicians - Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Chopin just to name a few. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

And guess what was playing on my walkman that entire day? CLOSER by Joy Division.

A few years went by and I found myself drawn to different types of music; music with messages of hope, perseverance and perhaps a healthy dose of self examination.

Then I found out that TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE was being made into a movie. Suddenly, that day at Pere-Lachaise came back in vivid memory. I broke out the old Joy Division albums in anticipation.

And Anton Corbijn was directing!

I’ve been a fan of Anton Corbijn for as long as I’ve known the bands he’s photographed. Corbijn has created enduring images and album artwork for bands such as U2, Depeche Mode and yes, Joy Division. You may not know him by name, but you’ve seen his work.

More than his amazing photographs however, I’d say that my greatest memories of Anton Corbjin go back to a series of music videos he did for Depeche Mode. I remember being blown away with their powerfully simple images. Corbijn is a photographer first and foremost, so there’s a great deal of emphasis placed on the individual shot in his music videos. And like any great filmmaker, he makes every shot count; each shot presents a unique idea that can be admired on it’s own.

Sadly, a majority of today’s music videos are shot with flashy editing in mind – they intend the rhythm of the editing to reflect the rhythm of the song. But with Corbijn, it’s the exact opposite. His videos play like epic short films. They take their time.

I remember thinking that this guy should definitely make the jump to feature films. And now over a decade later (over twenty years after shooting his DM music videos), he’s finally made the jump.

And CONTROL is as good as it should be. Corbijn’s images are as well thought out and striking as ever and he most certainly demonstrates that he can handle directing great performances in a powerfully dramatic story. Sam Riley and Samantha Morton are terrific in the leading roles and the music of Joy Division couldn’t be more perfectly incorporated. Whether you’re familiar with the songs of Joy Division or not, the film stands on it’s own as a piece of cinematic splendor.

American Gangster (2007), Ridley Scott ***1/2

The moment I saw the trailer for this film, I knew I’d love it. It’s 70’s, it’s Ridley Scott, and it draws on one of my favorite sub-genres of all time – blaxploitation!

AMERICAN GANGSTER tells the true-story-based tale of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who during the late 1960s inherits the territory run by the then-late Bumpy Johnson and builds a Harlem based heroin trafficking ring that manages to undercut the Italian mafia. Frank’s heroin is pure, cheap and cleverly shipped directly from Bangkok using military caskets during the Vietnam conflict.

Hot on his trail is detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a brutally honest undercover cop who deals not only with the corruption out on the streets but also within the police force.

Screenwriter Steven Zaillian makes both characters equally interesting by flipping their personal and professional lives. While Frank Lucas is a ruthless mob boss, he values his family and lives by a strict code of honor. Richie Roberts on the other hand, turns in a million dollars in unmarked cash and exposes police corruption making him a less than well liked figure on the force, but he’s also a cheating husband, womanizer and unfit father. Richie Roberts it seems is the one cop Frank Lucas can’t buy. The story is so engrossing and well told that the 157 minute running time is hardly felt. Some of the dialog and the random placement of that dialog (Lucas: "You're either somebody or you're nobody") gets a little tedious in places. It'll make you roll your eyes, but ultimately won't hurt your enjoyment of the film.

The first thing that really got me excited was the parallel between this story and that of Tony Gibbs (Fred Williamson) in Larry Cohen’s 1973 blaxploitation classic BLACK CAESAR. While the film proudly displays its low budget trappings, it also has a lot of things going for it - everything from Fred Williamson’s badass performance to the wonderful and completely complimentary music provided by the legendary James Brown. BLACK CAESAR is the door into what some of us were hoping would be an enduring sub-genre.

Since the death of blaxploitation there's been the occasional film that would reminds us of what we’ve been missing. Films like ACTION JACKSON, NEW JACK CITY, JACKIE BROWN, BLACK SNAKE MOAN and now AMERICAN GANGSTER.

AMERCIAN GANGSTER is a film that I’m sure wouldn’t like the label of blaxploitation and for the most part it doesn’t quite fit the bill - in fact, it's closer to SCAREFACE and GOODFELLAS than anything in the blaxploitation back catalog. Ridley Scott’s film has top-notch performances by both its leads and supporting actors (Josh Brolin deserves special recognition), has a significant budget and in all the recent heat surrounding the use of racist language, the “N” word is only spoken two or three times. But when “Across 100^th Street” by Bobby Womack starts to play, you know there’s a respectful nod to a whole sub-genre of films that would never fly in today’s politically correct society.