Eraserhead (1977)

While I was as saddened by the news of the passing of David Lynch as many other film fans, the silver lining to that very dark and sky-filling cloud is the fact that it finally gave me the motivation to check out a couple of long-standing blindspots in my journey through cinema. One of those movies, The Straight Story, didn't feel like such an embarrassing omission, although I am now kicking myself for not having made time for it sooner, considering how moved I was by it. The other one, however, was Eraserhead, a film that many would consider part of any Lynch 101 course.

Jack Nance plays Henry Spencer, a man who ends up fathering a child with Mary (Charlotte Stewart). The two adults end up stuck in Henry's very small apartment, struggling to deal with the constant crying of a newborn that resembles something far removed from the usual images of cute babies seen in the real world. Mary doesn't want to stick around, but Henry at least seems to find temporary respite in daydreams that soon start to warp into nightmarish visions bleeding into his reality.

The debut feature from Lynch, this has everything in place that would become commonplace in many of his later works. Despite the fairly low budget, the sound and visual design is constantly impressive, there's an atmosphere of oppressive fear and horror, and Nance is the kind of actor clearly able to work well under Lynch's direction. It also helps that the central creation here, the child, remains a horrifying and mind-boggling piece of work. Other practical effects also work well, but that baby is as nightmare-inducing now as it was back in 1977 when it was first seen.

It's hard to really discuss the performances, things are already so firmly set in a Lynchian style (from the performances to the content), but Nance is superb throughout, Stewart also does very good work, and Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates are effective as the parents of Mary, Judith Roberts is an extra point of interest (credited as Beautiful Girl Across The Hall), and Laurel Near was able to cement her place in cinema history while portraying the unforgettable Lady In The Radiator. Perhaps the best performance comes from the mind of David Lynch, who always remained secretive on exactly how the practical effect for the baby was created.

Eraserhead is about the loneliness of modern life, even while you're with a partner. It's about the fear of parenthood, both before it happens and when it takes over your life. It's also about much more than that. But, essentially, it's very much about announcing the incredible talent and vision of David Lynch. It's scary, it's upsetting, it's sometimes life-affirming, and you don't want to lose it once you have it in your life. And that's another way to cast off the shrouds of grief that have covered so many film fans in recent weeks. Because we may have lost the man, but his work will be with us forever. Even if that leads to you having an extra nightmare or two caused by his images.

9/10

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Dead Silence (2007)

After James Wan and Leigh Whannell found fame with Saw, for better or worse, they quickly moved into the territory that would become their more familiar ground over the next decade, the supernatural horror. Dead Silence is a film that is interesting now to watch for a number of reasons, not the least of them being the seeds of ideas that both men would use more effectively in a number of their more successful movies.

Things start with a dummy being delivered to the abode of Jamie And Lisa Ashen. It's not long until Lisa is dead, Jamie is the prime suspect, and a trip home sees him start to uncover a number of clues that point to the evil influence of a famous ventriloquist named Mary Shaw. He is trying to prove his innocence and find out exactly what happened, all the while being closely watched by a detective who clearly believes that it's only a matter of time until Jamie slips up and can be charged with murder.

There's so much here that I enjoy that I find it easy to overlook the things that Dead Silence does poorly. What it lacks in ANY sense of reality, what it fails to do in terms of hiding the minor and major twists, it more than makes up for with huge helpings of creepy atmosphere and a premise that allows plenty of chills to be wrung from that creepy standby, the ventriloquist's dummy. But this is a film that begins with a couple receiving a delivery of one such dummy and not immediately setting it on fire, setting their whole house on fire, and moving to the furthest possible zip code at the other end of the country. And that's not the least believable thing about the film. The production design is wonderful throughout, but turns a small town into nothing more than a succession of sets that wouldn't look out of place in any major Halloween haunt (it's no surprise to find that the film was used at Universal's "Halloween Horror Nights" in the year it was released), none of the characters feel remotely close to being normal human beings, and the finale, as enjoyably scary and effective as it is, is quite preposterous. It also suffers from the kind of editing that many disliked in Saw.

Wan directs competently enough, although he's at the beginning of a steep learning curve that he would easily stand astride within a few years, and he does enough with the pacing and atmosphere to help distract from the silliness. Whannell, on the other hand, can't seem to make headway with the script. He's gone on record with his unhappiness at the experience, and final product, but I'm surprised that he couldn't work his way out from the strong core and create something much better than what we ended up with. Both the exposition and dialogue are weak, although he deserves credit for creating the better scares that help to make things a bit easier for Wan.

Perhaps some stronger leads would have helped. I like Kwanten (although this was a while before I saw his work in True Blood and Red Hill, both allowing him to do much better work) but he's unable to do much with the material here. Donnie Wahlberg is so bad, at times, that he feels as if he's wandered in from an audition for the role of "obsessive and obstinate cop" in some parody. Judith Roberts is wonderfully creepy in the role of Mary Shaw, Bob Gunton and Amber Valletta do well as, respectively, the father and mother-in-law of Kwanten's character, and Laura Regan isn't onscreen for long enough to make a strong impression.

A dangerous dummy, a scary-looking old woman, an entity with a vendetta against individuals that isn't easy to placate and/or get rid of, a cop who may find himself in trouble while trying to keep track of a main suspect, Dead Silence may be viewed as a failure by some but it's an essential stepping stone in the filmographies of both Wan and Whannell. And it's actually a decent little chiller too, if also a bit of a silly one.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can get it here.

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

There are a lot of familiar elements in You Were Never Really Here and if I simply listed them without further explanation then you could be forgiven for thinking that this was just another retread of overheated tropes and cliches. Its a film about a man you pay to get jobs done without needing the police. There's a little girl needing saved, although she may be a lot tougher and smarter than she looks. There's betrayal. And, of course, a job goes horribly wrong. Thankfully, there's a lot more to this film than just those elements. Writer-director Lynne Ramsay, adapating a novella by Jonathan Ames, uses this storyline to explore the psychology of the main character and to show the drip drip drip of the violence and bloodshed eroding his core. But is it his mind going? His heart and soul? His humanity? Or is it possible to repair the damage?

Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, a man who spends a lot of his time rescuing snatched children, not averse to also killing people in his way with whatever he thinks will do the job best (like a hammer, for example). He also cares for his mother (Judith Roberts). When he's asked to track down the missing daughter of a politician, he goes about things in his usual, effective manner. All seems to go well . . . until it doesn't. As he realises what he's gotten himself into, Joe becomes more and more determined to rescue the young girl (played by Ekaterina Samsonov). That's not going to end well for the criminals, but it might not end well for Joe either.

I enjoyed You Were Never Really Here while it was on. Ramsay intercuts the main narrative with a number of sequences showing fragments of flashbacks and dreams that continue to upset Joe, showing that he's a man who may never find peace. Yet she also delivers in the standard scenes of vengeance/vigilante justice. The violence is depicted in a messy and brutal way, making it all the more effective as viewers can realise what Joe goes through with every life he takes. Physical struggles that take their toll, sharp things puncturing soft tissue, blood and sweat and, yes, a few tears. It's always brief, often only the after-effects are shown, but the film remains steeped in it for much of the runtime.

The choices made by Ramsay are interesting, mainly because of how she still presents viewers with touchstones from these kinds of movies while also using every action and interaction to delve deeper into the mind of Joe, but it helps her cause immensely that she has Phoenix in the main role. He's an actor often able to give great performances and this ranks up there with one of his very best. By turns scary, vulnerable, confident, suicidal, caring, and cold-hearted, there may be other people who turn up onscreen but I can't recall many of them. Roberts and Samsonov are the others who stand out, not because of other characters being underwritten or expendable but because of how strongly they impact on the life of Joe, and therefore affect his mindset for the majority of the movie.

There's something stopping me from rating this as a perfect film just now, which isn't to say that it won't happen when I revisit it some time in the future. Everything works so beautifully, bookended by acts of violence that shock in different ways. You also get a strange and wonderful Jonny Greenwood score as the icing on the cake.

If you're a fan of Ramsay or Phoenix (and why wouldn't you be?) then you owe it to yourself to see this film. I may even come back to this review soon to round up my rating.

9/10

Buy the blu here.
Americans will be able to get it here.