The Wicker Man (December 3rd at the Capitol Theatre)

[THE WICKER MAN screens Tuesday December 3rd at 7:00 pm at the Capitol Theatre. One show only!]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I am given to understand that both the CARRIE remake and the Princess Diana biopic both did poorly at the American box office. Good. I think horror movies get way too much attention as it is. Rimshot!

But one that's worth a second look is THE WICKER MAN, the 1973 UK suspense masterwork that, even in its day, was counted up with the great, taboo-nudging, game-changing chillers of the era, such as THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY. But THE WICKER MAN got a somewhat scattershot release, and while home-video revived the film for a generation of fans who only knew the thing by reputation and veneration, there have been repeated charges that filmmaker Robin Hardy's original version got all cut up and censored and may indeed be considered `lost.'

A Liar's Autobiography (now on video)

[A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I usually have OCD-style rules about always reading the pre-existing book before watching a movie adaptation - not because I'm all that insane; I just need some kind of protocols that I maintain to put the brakes on me wasting my life possibly watching every movie available at all times. And that way I get an excuse to read a few interesting books, apropos of very little.

One book I managed to skip was A Liar's Autobiography, the 1986 memoir by Graham Chapman, UK comedy writer/actor best known for being one of the Monty Python troupe. The urbane, pipe-smoking Chapman - who would be dead at 48, just four years later, of throat cancer - evidently took a `Pythonesque' approach (well, what would you expect, the Spanish Inquisition?) to his life story, evidently, sort of, based on the evidence of this new feature-film adaptation, also called A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Guess it's a bit of an occupational hazard, but how truly `Pythonesque' Chapman's Life of Graham was I wouldn't know, because, as I say, I never read the book. Too busy singing about spam with a bunch of Vikings in a diner.

Worried About the Boy (now on video)

[WORRIED ABOUT THE BOY is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

The latest crisis in my marriage, leading to the day my wife flees me for Scientologists? A familiar complaint, dating all the way back to when I wrote blurbs for the Cleveland International Film Festival. Back then I naturally had no girlfriend, so when the loneliness became unbearable I'd load a bunch of review copies into the Chrysler and take them to my parents' to share. And after a while my father would be appalled and turn to me and ask, "Charles...why do they make YOU watch all the gay movies?"

He was right. Any given review gig I had (except when I ghostwrote a book about children's movies), it seemed I would end up the go-to guy for homosexual content. I wasn't gay myself, and some of these same media operations had gay staff. But when it came to apportioning out articles to write about LGBT cinema, the er, honor fell to me.

The Long Day Closes (July 14th and 15th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE LONG DAY CLOSES screens  Saturday July 14th at 5:15 pm and Sunday July 15th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

English filmmaker Terence Davies is not terribly prolific, but, rather like American namesake Terence Malik, has compensated with a unique style and thoughtful maturity that rewards the viewer for any overly long intervals between features. THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992), a heavily autobiographical story of a sensitive boy growing up in Liverpool not long after WWII, is my favorite of what I've seen of his work, and like his breakthrough DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES - an art-house darling in its day - has very little of a strong forward-motion narrative; it was mainly about moods and emotion. THE LONG DAY CLOSES, a sort-of sequel, is even more refined, verging on very nearly plotless. Yet I dug it.  

Bunny and the Bull (December 15th and 16th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[BUNNY AND THE BULL screens Thursday December 15th at 6:45 pm and Friday December 16th at 9:30 pm  at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Finally, I am pleased to announce the best movie of 2011 - or I would have, except that BUNNY AND THE BULL came out in Great Britain in 2009; it's just taken two years to arrive in Cleveland. So forget it. I think I've even seen it on the DVD racks. I mean, Cleveland's media was still predicting LeBron would stay here when BUNNY AND THE BULL premiered, that's how far back it goes. If there's any consolation, I'm informed that cool things take even longer to reach Buffalo, New York. And then some hater informed me that it takes a week after that for Rochester. Even if they're the pits, I should move to Buffalo/Rochester and get rich selling a load of my old Windows 95 PCs.

Death at a Funeral (Feb. 4 at Strosacker Auditorium, CWRU)

[DEATH AT A FUNERAL screens Friday February 4th at 7pm, 9pm and 11pm at the Case Western Reserve University Film Society in the Strosacker Auditorium.]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

The DEATH AT A FUNERAL showing this weekend courtesy of the CWRU Film Society is not the competent but unnecessary "Americanized" version of two years back, directed by Neil LaBute with a largely-black cast. This one is the 2007 original, directed by the oft-underrated Frank Oz (who, despite a solid c.v. of films with the Muppets, Bill Murray, Steve Martin and even Robert DeNiro, will never be forgiven by the geekiarchy for that STEPFORD WIVES remake). Fleeing Hollywood, Oz works here in his native England with a mostly UK ensemble, settings and vibe that evoke the flavor of stuff you might remember being produced by George Harrison's illustrious Handmade Films back in the 1980s, maybe with a Python or two in the cast. The late Graham Chapman would have fit in particularly well (and not necessarily in the coffin).