Mississippi Grind (2015)

as far as buddy gambling movies go, Mississippi Grind it's not a new thing but a fresh one....
a Scarecrow (the 1973 Jerry Schatzberg film) with poker. and some racetrack bets and with A rate performances from Ben Mendelhson and Ryan Reynolds.
Directed by the team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (It's Kind of A Funny Story, Half Nelson) 
I watched this because i wanted to catch-up with a grand Ben Mendelsohn performance, cos I've just saw his big break in Rogue One, the new Star Wars toy of the (not so) Far Away Galaxy franchise.
Wrote about him in films like  Animal Kingdom, Starred Up, TDKR.

coming up from the tradition of gambling movies, drifters, The Hustler to its sequel, The Color of Money, to poker films, from The Cincinnati Kid to Rounders, The Gambler and its remake-James Toback has even a cameo in it !
great blues soundtrack !
3 out of five / 6 out of ten !

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)  comes for me from the list of 25 films to see (no one talks about) from Taste of Cinema. Caught up also with  Alois Nebel and Attila Marcel -though they have nothing in common it has the ring of a nice Pair :).

but this I wanted to see because the director, Panos Cosmatos is the son of one of the names of directors I knew as a child, italo-greek George Pan  Cosmatos, the late director of Cassandra Crossing, Escape from Athens, and allegedly stand-in /ghost director for guild credits reasons in Cobra, Rambo and Tombstone.
And this is Panos' debut, and it's inspired, as he says from his blurry memories of imagining watching films *that he was not allowed to*like 2001-A Space Odyssey, THX 1138, Altered States, Scanners, on VHS as a child. Images, feelings, more than normal narrative, cryptic storytelling in the Freudian way.
BtBR is dedicated to his mother, Birgitta Ljungberd, who was a surrealist sculptor.
The film is set in an alternative 1983, in Arboria, a a medical experimental facility where Elena (Eva Bourne) is kept prisoner by doctor Nyle (Michael Rodgers). The flashbacks of the foundation of the Institute go back into 1966 and deep into the drug culture gone wrong.

I can see traces of this going also into the hit series of the years, Stranger Things. 

this poster it's a bit tricky...

So, Beyond the BR is a one-of-a kind film, psychotronic, hypnotic, etheric, spellbinding, trippy, with the rhythm of a dreamscape /nightmare, and it brings in structures and triangle and prism shaped neons, from, well, The Neon Demon. 

Firstshowing net on The Neon Demon:

"Like some kind of wicked mix of Beyond the Black Rainbow and Suspiria with a dash of Elle Fanning."

The soundtrack, score and sound design. definetly could be an influence on Refn, even the sound of Drive. Its high time late seventies and 80’s analog synth with shades of Carpenter (again ?), and trippy electronica of Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream,  -another influence of the director is Michael Mann's The Keep).

The music is by Jeremy Schmidt as Sinoia Caves, with an SSQ end track, Anonymous, and a splash of Angel Dust from... Venom !

A third act more explicit, logical and with a spped up narrative, ends with a dry finale, almost like a joke, and a final quote from Buckaroo Banzai (which is a classic and an old-all time favorite of mine), "No matter where you go…There you are”
Overlong at 1h50, but fascinating, one-of-a kind opus, that remains with you long after you saw it, with a better vine actually than during the screening.
3 1/2 out of Five, 7 out of TEN.
A great radiography of the film as a neo-retro piece can be watched here:

and a very good review here

Antibirth (2016)

Antibirth de Danny Perez. e un soi de The Brood trash, in univresul lui John Waters, extrem de visceral neplacut dar si de un umor negru absurd.
Natsha Lyonne e o junkerita care ramine gravida, fara a stii insa cum, un rol absolut curajos pentru actrita! Prietenele ei sunt Chloe Sevigny si Meg Tilly, care traiesc intr-un mediu ultrasordid si cumva claustrofob. Televizunea le joaca si ea feste, la cit de drogate sunt. Poanta finala e funny (intr-un mod absurd, morbid si intunecat), dar nu merita excursia de 1 ora jumatate prin acest cosmar suburban sordid. Cu toate acestea are deja un cult minor (a fost prezentat la Toronto After Dark Film Fest in septembrie).

2 1/2 din 5, 5 out of Ten !

In a Valley of Violence (2016)

Westernul anului / Western of the year
In a Valley of Violence  has shades of Lucio Fulci and Clint Eastwood's High Planes Drifter in this unexpected homage to gritty westerns and the whole spaghetti genre, from the opening credits to the great music score (by Jeff Grace). Ti West's (The Sacrament, House of the Devil) most accomplished film, with elements of humor and horror. Travolta is great fun again for once, and Ethan Hawke is forgiven for the sin of Magnificent Seven. Taissa Farminga has the best performance, that after the genius dog Abby (Jumpy) that steals every scene she's in. Somehow weird, this film has the same premise that John Wick has.
3 1/2 out of 5. 7 out of 10 !