My first Penelope Spheeris movie, and I’m kind of blown away by the atmospheric style. She provides a fascinating snapshot of 1980s L.A. and its various subcultures, replete with the music and neon lights of these venues. When Maxwell Caulfield goes into psychotic reveries, he’s lit with lurid colors, and the music morphs into horrific dissonance. When things go violent, the film doesn’t shy away from the brutality (even with some of the most graphic shots being removed to secure…
Harmless but bizarre Vitaphone short with kids singing and dancing in ugly costumes. The opening song is about bubbles, but nothing else in the film is. It’s like the world’s tackiest talent show, but one of the kids happens to be the future Judy Garland, here performing with the other Gumm sisters. She gets one medium closeup and brief solo, but there’s little evidence of the talent to come. Of historical interest only.
Supplement on Warner Bros.'s Meet Me in St. Louis Blu-ray
This is a film about two people, and it's remarkable just how much of the film is occupied with only Claudia Cardinale and Jacques Perrin onscreen. All other characters are essentially background, including Perrin's older brother who jilts Cardinale at the beginning but is curiously never seen after the first act. The story of a wealthy teenage boy falling in love with a complicated, destitute woman is terribly simple, to the point that I don't think it justifies the 2-hour…
