Cinematic Distractions

The Puppet Films of Jirí Trnka (2000):
A showcase of the works of master artist, animator, and craftsman, Jirí Trnka, consisting of five shorts, one feature length film, and a short documentary:
Story of the Bass Cello (Román s basou - 1956) - A musician gets himself into a predicament when he stops for a swim on the way to a gig.
Song of the Prairie (Arie prerie - 1949) - It's good cowboy versus bad cowboy with a damsel caught in the middle. This cute and corny short has incredible action.
A Drop Too Much (O sklenicku víc - 1954) - A biker by the name of Bill demonstrates the perils of driving while drunk.
The Merry Circus (Vesely Cirkus - 1951) - Colorful paper cutouts astound and amaze children of all ages.
The Hand (Ruka - 1965) - An intrusive giant hand and a sculptor who just wants to make flowerpots serve as clever commentary on life and art under an oppressive regime.
The Emperor's Nightingale (Cisaruv slavík - 1949) - A caged bird teaches a caged emperor a priceless lesson. Narrated by Boris Karloff.
Jirí Trnka: Puppet Animation Master (1999) - This documentary shows Trnka at work and details his creative process.

Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017):
The weak may become strong given the right tools. Villains may become heroes given the right motivation.
I never thought I'd describe a movie as both dark and heartwarming. Errementari is a dark and heartwarming fantasy horror based upon a Basque fable. It's a little bit Pan's Labyrinth and a little bit The Devil and Tom Walker, and it's spectacular. It left me with a better feeling than I had at the end of Pan's Labyrinth.
I highly recommend it but with a warning to sensitive viewers. There are several extremely violent scenes. Although it contains children, and one of its protagonists is a sweet little orphan girl, it is not suitable for children. It opens with the execution of POWs. There are shootings, beatings, hangings, child abuse, domestic violence, intense verbal and physical bullying, torture, and a few mishaps involving bear traps.
The animated sequence in the opening credits is amazing. Hats off to the entire cast and most of all Eneko Sagardoy for his portrayal of the demon Sartael. The makeup, special effects, visual effects, and art departments deserve a ton of accolades for the outstanding work they did on the gates of Hell, its seemingly endless queue of damned souls, and their demonic overseers.
I streamed this, so I didn't have the luxury of any behind-the-scenes vignettes.

Picture a Scientist (2020):
It's every bit as good as I had heard but challenging to watch. It's an emotional rollercoaster. Depending upon the viewer, it might be triggering. It uplifts with scientific passion, the elation of discovery, and the wonder of innovation, then plummets into the horror and despair of these brilliant women whose blossoming careers were impeded or derailed by sex pest senior colleagues, institutional power dynamics, and systemic sexism.

Moon Knight (2022):
Thanks to this heavy, antiheroic, Egyptology themed, psychological thriller from Marvel (and when I chose to watch it), I can say I got a hippopotamus for Christmas. Take care, watching it may unbalance your scales. I appreciated the gods' affinity for quality tailoring and timeless fashion.

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955):
No amount of Hollywood sensationalism could compare to the sordid and shocking true story upon which this film is based. They had to omit and downplay certain things to get it past the censors. I suggest doing some reading about the life of Evelyn Nesbit, and the Thaw-White murder. Before or after the movie is at the viewer's discretion.
I had read some beforehand, but I missed the part about actor John Barrymore. The movie missed it too. His name is casually mentioned in reference to one of many bouquets sent by one of many would-be suitors of young Miss Nesbit. He was much more to Evelyn than that. He even testified at the murder trial. Perhaps he was left out to appease the censors. Perhaps old Hollywood preferred love triangles to the extent they cut off a corner. Barrymore was working as an illustrator when he met Evelyn. Compared to the other men, he was the closest to being her peer in that he was young, aspiring, and poor. Evelyn would have been better off, or maybe Thaw would have bumped him off. The world will never know.
Even without the sensational story, the CinemaScope gorgeousness is enough to hold interest, especially when it comes to Joan Collins. Some of the costumes are so loud you can practically hear them. The song and dance numbers are trivial as it is only indirectly a musical.
Evelyn went to work as a model and chorus girl when she was fifteen or sixteen. The uncertainty about her age stems from her mother adding a few years to skirt child labor laws. She was young. Really young. Too young. For all of it. It's hard to believe that she was in love with either man. She was torn between a married millionaire thirty years her senior and a volatile millionaire twice her age who stalked her every move.
Speaking of age, a peculiar exchange takes place between Mr. and Mrs. White. The two are having dinner at a swanky restaurant, when Elizabeth White (Frances Fuller) mentions to her husband, Stanford White (Ray Milland), that they are both forty-eight, which makes her twenty years older than he is. Even more unsettling, she looks twenty years older than he does. I'm dying to know if and how they aged her. I don't know what make-up effects were available at that time. Whatever they did, she looks closer to seventy than fifty. I found that scene terribly vexing. For comparison, Joan Collins was forty-eight when she joined the cast of Dynasty.
I was also vexed by the lack of facial hair on Ray Milland. Look at any photo of the real-life Stanford White. The dude had a massive push broom mustache. Although the movie mentions Pennsylvania Station as one of White's architectural achievements, he did not live to witness its completion. His firm did indeed design it, but the cornerstone would not be laid until almost a year after he was murdered.
Farley Granger plays the violently mentally ill multimillionaire Harry K. Thaw to whom he bears more than a passing resemblance. Glenda Farrell, whom I know from the Busby Berkeley Gold Diggers film series of the 1930s, plays Evelyn Nesbit's mother. She gets in some good zingers. Her youth may be gone, but her sass remains.
By the biggest of stretches, this is a Christmas movie. During the wedding scene falling snow can be seen through a window, and there is the sound of sleigh bells from the street below. The actual wedding took place in April, but Evelyn was born on Christmas.
I rented it on DVD. The special features included a nice segment about Joan Collins brimming with photos from her early career, and what might be the worst movie commentary track by a film historian ever. I don't remember his name, but he doesn't start talking until thirteen minutes into it. Sparse is an understatement. I thought something was wrong with the disc. He utters one or two sentences, then goes silent for about twenty minutes or so. He interjects only a few more times. What little information he provides can be readily found on the internet. That standard is fine for a college dropout who writes silly movie lists on some blog somewhere but not a film historian.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022):
This was so much fun! This was my only intentional Christmas selection. Fans will watch it no matter what, so I'm going to describe it without referencing the franchise or characters for people who might not be interested in those particulars.
A tight-knit group of intragalactic colleagues who hail from disparate cultures, planets, and species seek to cheer up the Earthling among them with a surprise Christmas celebration. Two of them volunteer to head to Earth to find the perfect gift and gain a better understanding of the holiday and its festive traditions and symbols. As with anything to do with Guardians of the Galaxy, the soundtrack is great. I especially liked how they used Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses.

Stella Dallas (1937):
I had endeavored to avoid both blatant and incidental Christmas movies. I didn't even rent my favorite incidental Christmas movie, Akira Kurosawa's Scandal (1950). Damn it! Stella broke my streak.
I was foiled by a frilly flouncing floozy!
The reason for my attempted avoidance was an unscientific experiment. I have this weird thing with movies and time. I have an uncanny knack for choosing movies in coincidence with the calendar. I often nail the month and sometimes even the exact day during which the events depicted are said to take place. The first time I noticed this cinematic synchronicity was the first time I watched The Last Broadcast (1998). The second time was the first time I saw Ravenous (1999). Those were over twenty years ago, and it has been happening regularly ever since.
I watched Stella Dallas eight days before Christmas. When I selected it, I knew that it was directed by King Vidor and starred Barabara Stanwyck. I read the synopsis and a few reviews. There was no indication of Christmas. I thought I had made a safe choice. I thought I could thwart it. I was wrong. There is probably a Jung joke in there somewhere. Up jumped the incidental Christmas devil in the middle of a movie about classism, divorce, child custody battles, and society's scorn for single mothers.
I had seen Barabara Stanwyck in one other movie before this one. She starred as Sugarpuss O'Shea in the screwball comedy Ball of Fire (1941). I had experienced two other King Vidor directorial efforts prior to this, one of them unwittingly. The one I was aware of was Duel in the Sun (1946), which was featured fairly recently on this list. The one I didn't know about until I had researched Stella Dallas was The Wizard of Oz (1939) [black and white Kansas scenes].
I take back what I said at the beginning. Stella is no floozy. The world treats her like one. Classism oozes from every pore of this story. Stella is a poor young lady from a mill town who loves dressing fancy and having a good time. Her adventurous fashion sense is ripped from the pages of the chintzy beauty and gossip magazines that she enjoys reading. Too poor for haute couture, she makes her own clothing, copying then embellishing the designs.
Stella doesn't have much in the way of ambition beyond not wanting to end up a "mill hen". Both her father and her brother work at the mill. She and her mother, played by the delightful Marjorie Main, get them awake and fed and off to work every day. Stella also brings them their lunch. For such a young and pretty woman, it amounts to drudgery. Every afternoon when the mill lets out, Stella gets dressed up, grabs a stack of books, and positions herself by the front gate of her house, hoping to catch the attention of a suitable gentleman. There is one in particular that she desires. His name is Stephen Dallas (John Bolles). He works in the mill's office. Stephen is a temporarily embarrassed millionaire in that he came from money but left it all behind due to a scandal involving his father. Still, he is high-end compared to the men who get their hands dirty.
Stella gloms onto Stephen. He finds her refreshingly quaint. Soon they are married and expecting a child. Stella tries to please Stephen only to discover that he is much staider and stodgier than he had let on when they began dating. He turns sullen and cranky, showing a sudden distaste for everything that drew him to her. He finds fault with her whimsical and flashy outfits, her gregarious personality, and the company she keeps.
To be fair to stick-in-the-mud Stephen, Stella hangs with some insufferable loudmouths, and none louder or more obnoxious than horse trainer and frequent carouser Ed Munn (Alan Hale Sr.). After their daughter Laurel (Anne Shirley) is born, Stephen pressures Stella to conform to his refined ideal. Apparently, all it takes for progeny to be forever shunned by the upper class is for mom to show up to the ritzy country club luncheon wearing a tad too much lipstick and rouge, a frilly floral print dress and a fur stole paired with leopard-print stiletto heels with tiny, tinkling bells dangling from the laces. When Stephen is offered a high paying job in New York City, Stella balks at leaving her family and friends. The marriage fractures, and thus begins the story.
Classism is my least favorite plot flavor. It's a compelling family drama, but it frustrated me. I'll keep my opinions and observations about Stephen and all the other things that stink like fish to myself.
Etta McDaniel, sister of Hattie McDaniel, has an uncredited role as the Dallas' maid.
The DVD had but one bonus feature: Stella Dallas (1925). The 1937 movie is a remake. In fact, it's an almost shot-for-shot remake, plus a few of the actors are the spitting image of the actors in the 1925 silent film.
There was no music to accompany the original as it was presented on the disc. My options were to provide my own music or watch it in total silence. I chose a mix of both.

Cycle (2018):
Family-friendly and charming, but there are times when it takes its anti-materialism message too far to be credible. I liked the notion that anyone from an astrologer sentimental over a bicycle to a couple of thieves can attain enlightenment. I didn't like the astrologer being shamed and socially pressured for cherishing his bicycle.
The bike is a family heirloom passed down to him from his grandfather, but it is also his transportation to work and his daughter's ride home from school. Keshav (Hrishikesh Joshi) is a kind and generous family man. The spiritual moralizing directed at him just feels wrong. It's a bicycle not gold bars hoarded in a vault. He should be allowed to enjoy his humble means of conveyance.
I had no problem with the story arc concerning the thieves. It's heartwarming, plus Priyadarshan Jadhav and Bhau Kadam are funny. They kept me going until the end of the movie.
Really, it was only one scene that took it too far for me. Without giving it away, it doesn't involve the bike directly. It involves a misfortunate client of the astrologer. I found it impossible to believe, so much so that it took away from my enjoyment of the rest of the movie.

The Humans and the Mongoose (El Ens W El Nems - 2021):
Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here below this movie listing to mourn the loss of two hours of my life.
I went looking for some Bollywood fun, but I landed in Egypt. What I found was a haunted house themed hot mess of a romantic comedy laden with gross-out humor, including but not limited to people vomiting on each other and literal toilet jokes. The visual effects and set design are uneven in quality. It looks like they ran out of money somewhere in the Mongoose mansion's basement.
A prospective groom, Tahsin (Mohamed Henedi), goes to meet his future in-laws at their lavish and bizarre mansion. The synopsis says Tahsin is a government employee, but according to the movie, he is the manager of an amusement park's haunted house. I'm at a loss to explain that discrepancy. It doesn't matter anyway. Tahsin meets his bride-to-be by getting hit by a car. They are an unlikely couple. She insists he spend some time with her folks before the wedding.
There are echoes of Nothing but Trouble (1991). There is a freaky funhouse mansion, and an apropos of nothing musical performance in the middle of the movie. Even though I didn't recognize the artist, and the music wasn't exactly to my taste, it's one of the best scenes. Looking it up was tough due to the language barrier, but I did manage to find it:
مهرجان هابا - جنرال اوكا و محمد هنيدي و بيومي فؤاد - من فيلم الانس والنمس: Haba Festival - General Oka, Mohamed Heneidy and Bayoumi Fouad - from the movie Al-Anas wa Al-Nems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_GWrbzn9k8
While I don't recommend The Humans and the Mongoose, it could be an interesting double feature with Nothing but Trouble.