Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan

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“It Follows.” (It’s great!!)

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[WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR “IT FOLLOWS” (2014).]

A smaller budget doesn’t hurt this great indie horror film; I’d give “It Follows” a 9 out of 10.

It’s smart, surreal, creepy and atmospheric, and it’s beautifully shot.  Maybe it has some similarities with “The Ring” series, and also the little known excellent horror film, “From Within” (2008), but it’s still darkly creative and original.

It’s damn scary too — it’s terrific what this film accomplished with what looks like minimal CGI.  For some reason, a certain shot of a rooftop really got under my skin.  So, too, did a sequence depicting friends unable to warn a major character, because they’re unable to see “It” approach.

I have always had a weird thing about dopplegangers.  Other people hate clowns; I get creeped out by shapeshifters.  I’m frightened by any monster that can masquerade as allies or loved ones.  It’s part of the reason that the Alien Bounty Hunter worked so well for me as an antagonist on “The X Files” (1993), and why the T-1000 scared me in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” (1991).  Even Mystique, “The X-Men” franchise’s anti-hero, could be a little unsettling every once in a while.  (An attack on Wolverine BY Wolverine?  Leaving his confused teammates unable to help?  That’s a little creepy.)

There are a bunch of themes served up by “It Follows” that you could walk away discussing with your friends; online critics are quick to point out sexually transmitted disease.  (A little on the nose, don’t you think?)  They also pointed out mortality — this was something that I actually missed, despite the fact that it was helpfully hinted at by one character who periodically reads Dostoyevsky aloud.

I personally thought the film tapped into a bunch of sexual taboos and anxieties — especially incest.  Consider the conversation about one character kissing a sibling, a face we see in a framed photograph toward the end, and the way “It” attacks another major character.  I also saw victimization — as with “The Ring,” the victims of the monster here are presented  with a tremendous moral quandary about how they might save themselves or at least forestall an attack.

Is water a motif?  Much screen time is devoted to characters entering pools or the ocean; one person also begs for water during an attack.

And what about wealth?  Much seems to be suggested by characters traveling from an affluent neighborhood to a poor one.  And all those sweeping shots (and excellent long tracking shots) of the protagonists’ beautiful neighborhood really stayed with me.  I kept thinking about how much I’d like to live there.

I’d love to know more about the origin and modus operandi of “It.”  There is a sequel planned, according to Wikipedia; that’s one of its possible plots.

This is a terrific scary movie!  Watch it tonight!

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A short review of “Insidious: Chapter 2” (2013).

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It’s garish, it’s over the top, and it’s muddled — the kind of film that begs to be lampooned by “South Park” or “Family Guy.”  For much of its running length, it’s largely a retread of its predecessor.  Yet “Insidious: Chapter 2” (2013) still manages to be a good horror movie.  I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

It’s pretty damn scary.  Its saving graces, I think, are slick directing, a fast pace, and an effective horde of screaming, shrieking ghosties.  (White-faced Screaming Abusive Mama Ghost needs to CHILLAX.)  If a fright flick makes you jump a bunch of times (and during the daytime!), then you know it’s a decent fright flick, right?

Patrick Wilson shines.  But the talented Rose Byrne does little in this film beyond running around with a terrified expression on her face.  (It’s the screenwriter’s fault, not hers.)  You see that face she’s making in the movie poster?  That’s her performance throughout almost the whole movie.

Did anyone notice that “Specs” is Leigh Whannell, one of the initial two unfortunates in “SAW” (2004)?  (He’s also the screenwriter for both films.)

This was a good horror movie.  If you want a scare before bedtime, see it.

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A review of “Tomorrow When the War Began” (2012)

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Sigh. “Tomorrow When the War Began” (2012) looked SO promising – like an Australian version of “Red Dawn” (1984). Is there any movie more badass than “Red Dawn?” Is there any nation more badass than Australia?

Instead, this was like “Red Dawn Lite.” Should we call it “Pink Dawn?” No … that sounds like Gay rights activists invading the Bible Belt. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  They’d get their First and Ninth Amendment Rights, along with the equal protection under the law that they deserve under the 14th Amendment.

Okay, I’m meandering. That’s because this film was so lackluster, it’s not even terribly fun to write about. Don’t get me wrong – this wasn’t a poorly made film. It was well written and directed, with promising young actors. It had great characters too – particularly the goofy guy who becomes a responsible leader. Parts of it were quite funny and it usually held my interest.

But this just wasn’t what I was hoping for – a visceral foreign invasion thriller. It’s obviously a tween movie – like “Red Dawn” given “The Hunger Games” treatment. Most of this film’s screen time is devoted to character development, including (of course) at least one unlikely teen romance. The nameless invaders seem to get less screen time (or attention from the characters) than a fun overnight camping trip that the teen heroes undertake.

Seriously. More script and plotting are devoted to their camping trip than to the armies invading their country. The (presumably North Korean) invaders must be the shyest opposing force ever – for much of the movie, we hardly see them. Are they embarrassed because their helmets make them look like those guys who fire the Death Star superweapon?

I’d give this movie a 6 out of 10.

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This poem is NOT about Baltimore.

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Or the events that preceded the demonstrations.  Seriously, it isn’t — I helped with this many years ago; it was meant to lampoon the bread-and-circuses fare of the FOX Network’s “COPS” reality show.  It was never published and only inhabits a couple of poetry websites.

It is the only poem I ever collaborated on — my co-authors here were Nick Mirren and Asia Carpenter.  It started out as a joke, but turned dark early on.  The shoehorned classical references are mine.  Because that’s one particular well to which a pseudo-intellectual can’t help but return.

“COPS — the Television Show” (A collaborative poem among Nick Mirren, Asia Carpenter and Eric Robert Nolan):

All those felonious freaks
Running around shirtless,
Weaving through drug induced hazes
“Forgotten’ items, identities.
A siren sounds, though not Homer’s
It is man’s, it is The Man’s –
Pursuit and not seduction, the sound
Of uniforms and their quarry.

(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2015

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“Lying Close,” by Eric Robert Nolan

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Lying Close

Lying with her,
Lying close,
Lying while her past escapes in silver whispers.

Lying with her,
Lying close,
Lying while the unspoken
Is a rough coal in my own throat.

Her soft voice is as that
Of the single quail at dusk —
Easy and artless.

My silence fails to announce
The purposeful, leaning
Turn of the falcon’s arc.

Lying with her,
Lying close,
Lying by omission.

(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2013

First published by Dead Snakes, May 2013:

http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/eric-robert-nolan-two-poems.html

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“Coturnix Novaezelandiae (New Zealand Quail),” Charles Joseph Hullmandel, “The Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Erebus & Terror,” 1844

Der Heilige Michael, Luca Giordano

“When I Meet The Devil,” by Eric Robert Nolan

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When I Meet the Devil

When I meet the Devil
I’ll kill him.

Not for his endless treachery, richly expressed
In perfectly worded, erudite, platinum-bright aphorisms.

Not for the endless lies that spiral from his quick lips
Like fine red ethereal thread, spooling at our feet
Like bloodshot spider-web.

Not for the false
Compliments that slide off his baroque tongue
Like newly minted coins of fool’s gold.

When I meet the devil,
I’ll kill him
Because God made him.

(c) Eric Robert Nolan 2013

First published by Dead Snakes, May 2013:

http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/eric-robert-nolan-two-poems.html

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Photo credit: “Der Heilige Michael,” Luca Giordano, 1663 (via Wikimedia Commons)

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I need YOUR help locating a vintage horror comic.

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I have already queried the uber-nerd community on Facebook with this.  (I got connections, Baby.)  No response yet, so I figured I’d try to crowdsource it.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT  MATTER, PEOPLE.  Stop whatever you’re doing right now and attend to it.  Shoot me an e-mail instead of commenting; thanks.  🙂

[“Oooooookay, Mr. Pete Harrison. Since you are the Internet’s resident vintage horror comic expert, maybe you or your friends can help me track down a comic from my childhood.

It was published in the late 70’s or early 80’s, and was a damn cool horror anthology. My parents bought it for me when I was around 7, on a family trip to Tennessee.

One story focused on a creepy kid who lived with his family by the ocean — he might have been a lighthouse keeper’s son. He finds a huge, mysterious egg that washes up with the tide, takes it home, and secretly cares for it. It hatches into a monster.

Another story was about a woman whose sprawling garden got possessed by demons or ghosts — these long viny plants sprouted screaming skulls at their tips. It had a happy ending — she vanquished the baddies. The last line of the story explained that she paved over the garden with concrete, and assiduously repaved it again every year.

Anyone know what I’m talking about?”]

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Avengers Assemble … Again!!! (SPOILERS!)

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[WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR “THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.”]  Fun, fun, fun!  Earth’s Mightiest Heroes roar back onto the screen with nearly all of the action, humor and spectacle of the wonderful original — I would give “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015) a 9 out of 10.

It’s got everything that you could ask for in a superhero movie, including another great villain in the form of James Spader’s “Ultron,” beautifully animated by CGI.  A surprise standout was Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch.  She’s a great young actress whose work I really liked in 2011’s terribly under-appreciated horror-thriller, “Silent House.”  She’s got perfect line delivery.  I’d love to see future Avengers films include her in the lineup, so that she can trade quips with Tony Stark.

There’s some great writing — the backstory for the twins was suitably dark, and was a perfect motive for a hatred of Stark.  The banter might not be as funny as the first film, but was still quite good.  And there’s some nice thematic continuity with Marvel’s planned “Civil War” storyline.

The movie falls short of perfection with the occasional misstep.  For example, the flashbacks/hallucinations that various characters suffer were clumsy, overdone, and sometimes befuddling.  Compare them with similar scenes in movies like “12 Monkeys” (1995) or “Donnie Darko” (2001), or well made television shows like “LOST.”  Captain America’s worst fear is some lame “The war is over” existential bullshit?  No.  Cap is supposed to be the personification of freedom and democracy — his worst nightmare would be a totalitarian state.  Or an undead Bucky.  Or better yet, being a man out of time, it would be the loss of his friends, his family and his true love.

A key conversation between two key characters at the end about mankind’s future is just a little too depressing for an Avengers movie.  Also a little sad?  The suggestion that the team’s lineup would change.  Our existing roster is terrific — the fan’s love ’em and I believe all the actors are under contract.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Postscript: this movie is interesting because it shows the same superhero starring in competing film franchises.  Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s “Quicksilver” is the very same Marvel Comics’ speedster we saw played (and scripted with much more fun) last year by Evan Peters in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”  (There, he’s simply referred to as “a guy” or “Maximoff,” for copyright considerations, I guess.)

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“November, Blue Ridge Mountains, 1992,” by Eric Robert Nolan

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I wrote this short poem 23 years ago, as a junior at Mary Washington College.  It was first published by The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archives in July 2013:

http://iwvpa.net/nolaner/zz-november.php

November, Blue Ridge Mountains, 1992

November compelled us to visit the hills,
Where ignorant rock and lofty pine
Were witness to our disregard
For strangeness, temptation and time.

But memories are sticky things.
Will any mountain ever let
Me dream again? Can I now
Feel rain without regret?

(c) Eric Robert Nolan 1992

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Photo credit: Dave in the Triad, via Wikimedia Commons, “Rough Ride Tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” October 2008

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A review of “The Tall Man” (2012)

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I’m again blogging old movie reviews from Facebook.  In retrospect, I maybe should have given this clever, unexpected gem a 9 out of 10.  I am also a little confused about whether there was a sequel to this movie, entitled “The Regret.”  (Or was that an overseas title for this film?)

*****

I really liked “The Tall Man” (2012) though I can tell right away that many other viewers will not. And it’s hard to explain why, because this is a “twist movie” that’s difficult to discuss without spoilers. The film that you sit down to watch absolutely is not the same film that you wind up seeing.

The movie opens with Jessica Biel as an idealistic doctor in a gorgeous but very poor Washington State small town. The town’s children sporadically disappear, according to a creepy and wonderfully effective montage, and townsfolk blame the supernatural “Tall Man.” For a while, it’s a first-rate thriller. I jumped a few times.

Then there’s a twist.

Then, in the movie’s final 10 minutes, there’s another twist that affects the first. And there’s a hell of a lot of moral ambiguity. (Or maybe not – I, for one, disagreed with and would have hated the prevailing character.)

I thought the whole thing was smart, creative and frightening. Jessica Biel did a great job. The sweeping pans of the forest are fantastic – was it partly CGI? Did they use a helicopter?

It actually isn’t a perfect mystery. There are a few implausibilities. One character is far too well adjusted for his or her circumstances, one character conceals something for no reason, and the young mute girl’s decision makes no sense, if you consider what she does and does not know.

Still – good movie. I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

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