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A HAUNTING IN ATCHISON

THE SALLIE HOUSE DELIVERS THE FRIGHT

THE SALLIE HOUSE (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

 

I don’t write a travelogue; I have written very little in the way of “Haunted Houses,” traditional or otherwise… the closest I’ve come (other than the occasional film review) was an overview of haunted attractions in Saint Louis that I wrote last century. Plus… even though I love spooky and creepy stuff and have watched more than my fair share of paranormal programming, I remain a devout skeptic. Sure, I’ve encountered things that I have no firm explanation for, but I generally put it off to too much caffeine or too little sleep. So, anyway…

THE SALLIE HOUSE (Historic and paranormal descriptions adorn the walls) (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

 

Somehow, the Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas has until very recently alluded my eagle eye for really (make that REALLY) haunted locations. When a cousin’s granddaughter (hi, Jameson) found out that I was into the ooky and kinda spooky, she showed me a YouTube video by a couple of guys named Sam Golbach and Colby Brock, Kansas natives who explored the house with rather frightening results. Since, I have been planning a visit there, which – naturally – led to me calling the Atchison Chamber of Commerce and the director overseeing the Sallie House, Jill Thorne. Jill told me that she, too, had been a skeptic until the deaths of her parents, when unexplained experiences began to occur around her. As for the Sallie House, she says that she has had no experiences there… primarily because she refuses to go to the location; she has been twice to the house at 508 North Second Street and, then, only because her position as director dictated that she be there. Anybody visiting the location must sign a waiver absolving the Atchison Chamber of Commerce of any liability in case of any spirit-inflicted injuries. Which begs the question… what has earned the Sallie House the title of “most haunted place in Kansas?

THE SALLIE HOUSE (A small operating table with tools of the trade and pictures depicting Sallie) (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

 

Well, here’s the story: At the dawn of the 1900s, the property was occupied by a doctor – living quarters on the second floor, office and examination rooms on the first. A mother, frantic because her six year old daughter had collapsed with extreme abdominal pain, brought the girl to be treated. This is where things get a bit foggy. It was either a sunny day or a dark and stormy night (of course… aren’t they all?). The little girl’s name was Sallie or, the name belonged to the physician’s maid who answered the door. After a quick exam, the doctor determined that the culprit was an inflamed appendix ready to burst. The doctor was either groggy from being woken from a deep sleep or he was in a hurry to remove the appendix before it did burst or he was in a perpetual state of drunkenness; he either fumbled with the bottle of chloroform and dropped it, shattering the glass and losing the contents, leading him to operate on the poor child the old fashioned way (“Hold her down tight. This is going to hurt.”) or, again because of his fear that the offending organ would burst, acted in haste to try to save the youngster. Other stories indicate that the doctor had an affair with his Black maid, the result of which was a daughter; when the daughter became ill, the doctor was too ashamed to take her to the hospital and performed the surgery in his office. Regardless of which (if any) of these stories is true, it is almost a certainty that the child died on the operating table. So… does that mean that the ghost of the little girl is haunting the house, wreaking havoc on all and sundry because she’s upset that she died? Or, is there something more malevolent there?

THE SALLIE HOUSE (Upstairs bedroom where guests leave toys for Sallie to play with) (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

 

If reports are to be believed, I tend to lean toward the latter. The residence has remained empty since the last tenants moved out in 1993 after experiencing some of the most frightening, painful attacks ever recorded this side of the infamous Lutz home in Amityville, New York. Tony and Debra Pickman spent nearly two years at the home. During those 22 months, Tony was scratched often and tormented in near-demonic fashion the entirety of their time in the Sallie House. Debra wasn’t safe, either, but Tony experienced most of the negative effects, including being pushed down the stairs. While everyone who visits say that they “feel a presence,” most of the violent activity seems to be targeted at males, giving rise to the entity being called a “man-hating spirit.” Most of the current reports from visitors to the house seem to indicate that much of the activity occurs in the basement, where there is a dark spot on the floor that is said to be an attempt to burn off a pentagram painted there, no doubt left by a coven of witches or Satanists (or a bunch of teens perpetuating the myth that ol’ Scratch, the horned beast himself, is on the prowl for fresh souls to steal).

THE SALLIE HOUSE (Atchison Chamber of Commerce director JILL THORNE) (photo credit: DARREN TRACY)

 

Whether you believe the tales of the haunting of Sallie House or not, the trip and the tour is worth your time. You can visit Monday through Friday (during regular business hours) for a one-hour self tour and try to scare up a spirit or two while revisiting a little bit of Americana in the ancient house. For the truly adventurous, you can schedule an overnight paranormal investigation to really rile up the ghostly and demonic residents of 503 North Second Street. Jill did allow me to tour the house and take the pictures used here and, while she did unlock the door (and pose for the picture above), true to her word, she did not accompany me into the house; in fact, when I asked if she was coming in, her eyes widened and she gave a quick shake of her head before leaving. Did I have any experiences there? Well… no. I did, however, meet a family from De Soto, Kansas who had stories from previous trips, including scratches, unexplained voices and glithcy electronics. After their session was over, I asked Sarah to describe some of the occurrences for a video. While she was explaining some of the camera and recorder malfunctions, I noticed that my phone had stopped recording and, later, as I tried to replay the remainder of the interview, I discovered that it was nearly all gone. Was it the entity of the house messing with us or was it operator error? Either way, I do thank Sarah for taking the time to talk about her experiences and her belief in what may actually be happening in and around the Sallie House.

AMELIA EARHART BIRTHPLACE (223 North Terrace Street) (uncredited photo); SANTA FE DEPOT (200 South Tenth Street) (publicity photo)

 

Haunted houses (there’s also the 1889 McInteer Villa, among others) aren’t the only reason to visit Atchison. Sitting on the west bank of the Missouri River, it was where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Corps of Discovery Expedition disembarked after their journey upriver from Saint Charles, Missouri and began the western trek across this land; if you like to hike (and can dodge traffic), you can actually walk across the river and tell all your friends that you hiked through two states in an afternoon. Atchison is also the original home of the famous Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail System and the birthplace of Amelia Earhart, who may or may not still reside in the house she was born in… Hey, we are talking about haunted places, right? Happy haunting, everyone.

Haunted Houses Haunted Houses HEY, MA! WATCH THIS LITERARY LICENSE... REVOKED! | Darren Tracy | |   Amelia Earhart Atchison Chamber of Commerce Atchison Kansas Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Haunted Atchison Haunted House Historic Buildings Jill Thorne Lewis and Clark Museums Paranormal The Sallie House

DAUGHTER

(DARK STAR PICTURES/YELLOW VEIL PICTURES/THIRTEENTH FLOOR PICTURES/ONE WORLD ENTERTAINMENT(96 minutes; Unrated); 2023)

I have a particular fondness for weird and unpredictable movies. So many films these days are by-the-book entries in their respective genres, and anything in the horror/suspense world is more likely than not to give the viewers what they want, more or less. DAUGHTER, a memorable little indie project from writer/director Corey Deshon, is a well-made offering that grabbed my attention right away. It starts with two masked individuals chasing a terrified girl through a bleak landscape, and I think one of the dudes mutters something to the other, after their terrible act, like “Remember, you were responsible for this.” But whether I got that quote right or not, we are soon privy to the terror experienced by a different girl played by Vivien Ngo, as she is being menaced, oddly in a “respectful” manner, by “Father’ (Casper van Dien, best known from STARSHIP TROOPERS, in a career-best performance here). Father is explaining to the girl that she is now part of his family, that she will be addressed as the titular “Daughter,” and that she is badly needed as a companion for “Brother,” played by Ian Alexander. And there is a “Mother” around also, Elyse Dinh. Both the women here are Vietnamese, and this is never explained, though they do use the language to speak to each other, presumably to keep “Father” from understanding their conversations. We have our setup: A cult-like family who think that the “outside” is “poison,” and that safety can only be counted on inside, are fixed on having the right daughter to complete their family, and to bring happiness to their son. Something really weird is going on, and the movie hangs on our suspense about what in hell is happening.

DAUGHTER (IAN ALEXANDER, CASPER VAN DIEN, ELYSE DINH) (photo courtesy DARK STAR PICTURES)

It is worth mentioning the score here, as I believe that music can have a huge role in one’s response to a film. This one was done by David Strother, a composer I don’t know, and it’s a doozy. All tense strings (likely cello and violin/viola) which are often discordant and almost always insistent, but very evocative. They tell us rather straightforwardly that something is really OFF in this scenario, and I think the music is very effective. Deshon made a good choice in utilizing this composer.

DAUGHTER (ELYSE DINH, CASPER VAN DIEN, IAN ALEXANDER) (photo courtesy DARK STAR PICTURES)

It was also a curious and very successful choice to put van Dien in the lead. We’ve seen this actor as an energetic and rather heroic type in past films, and here he is unhinged, spooked (in that way so common to overwrought cult leaders) and singularly set on his one dysfunctional goal: To maintain the semblance of a family and overcome any hesitation on the part of the girl(s) he kidnaps. “This is going to be home for a while,” he tells the scared Daughter. “You have to understand that. You’re part of a family now… I can’t do this without you.” We’ve all read sick news stories about cult kidnappings before, so the grim resonance of this scenario is vividly real. Ngo shows initial reticence and fear, but gradually we see her start to become a bit calculating, and the actress does a credible job starting to “adapt.” She slowly starts to become agreeable, though she is wacked in the face by Father wielding a rolled-up newspaper at one point. She is gingerly trying to push the limits a bit. And while she starts playing with the “Brother,” first at a board game he seems to fancy and then via a “storytelling exercise” that she has to persuade him to engage in (it soon leads to a weird bit of theatricality), Father is suspicious throughout, hovering never far away and making sure both of the “siblings” (as well as we the audience) are kept on edge. He reads periodically from a tattered book (it could be the Bible or some other culty guidebook), and he keeps saying things like “the diseases out there don’t play by the rules!” and issuing warnings like “Don’t you poison that boy!” and “Don’t ruin everything.” The youngster, Ian Alexander, has one of the difficult challenges here: How to show his innocent enthusiasm for “fun” and bonding with his new sibling, and his absolute adherence to Father’s wishes, while clearly getting rattled when something doesn’t seem right. Alexander has a crucial – and a bit inscrutable – role here and he fulfills it well.

DAUGHTER (ELYSE DINH, CASPER VAN DIEN, VIVIEN NGO, IAN ALEXANDER) (photo courtesy DARK STAR PICTURES)

But the film mostly belongs to Casper van Dien. He is entirely believable, quite scary, and a million miles away from his heroic part in STARSHIP TROOPERS. He wears monastic plain clothes (they all do), is clearly disturbed about what he perceives as the sick reality of the outside world, and shows how quickly he might go OFF, and hurt you. He makes it clear early on that if he thinks you DESERVE to be hurt, you WILL be. That keeps you guessing all the way to the end.

DAUGHTER (CASPER VAN DIEN, IAN ALEXANDER) (photo courtesy DARK STAR PICTURES)

It’s remarkable that director Strother keeps sex totally out of the picture here… the reality of most cults I have ever read about is that part of the MO when kidnapping women is to prey on them sexually. That is NOT part of this particular story. Also a surprise was the ending, which I won’t give away. Some things are left hanging, and you’re left knowing mostly, as one of the captioned chapter titles tell us, that you’ve seen “A Story About Sick People.” I found this film scarily resonant and relevant. We live in a world these days where all kinds of predatory creeps, whether motivated by religion or not, force or pressure people to do the things the sickos want, sometimes having to give up their old lives. DAUGHTER does not make everything clear about the reality we are witnessing, and each of the characters ends up representing a separate aspect of life in a dysfunctional (potentially dystopian?) small-scale system. It’s unsettling, unnerving and sometimes quite disturbing. But the decision-making process that went into the production of this offbeat gem of a film was thoughtful and deliberate, and it pays off. Kudos to the director and the acting foursome for serving up something that you’re not likely to forget, and avoiding almost all the clichés of this particular cinematic milieu.

(DAUGHTER premieres in theaters and On Demand on February 10, 2023, with a DVD release scheduled for May 9.)

HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies | Kevin Renick | |   Casper Van Dien Corey Deshon DAUGHTER David Strother Digital On Demand Elyse Dinh Enslavement Horror Ian Alexander Indoctrination Kidnapping Movies Theatrical Release Unrated Vietnamese Actors Vivien Ngo

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY

(YELLOWSTONE FILM RANCH/RENEGADE ENTERTAINMENT/RLJ ENTERTAINMENT (127 minutes; Unrated); 2022)

If you’ve spent any time here at all, you probably know that I’m a sucker for Westerns – movies (RUSTLERS’ RHAPSODY being my favorite), television series (HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL does it for me), comic books, novels and non-fiction. Anything at all that could be deemed a “Western” is pretty much okay in my book. So, when the chance to review a new flick called MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY hit my email, I jumped on it. I was not disappointed!

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ISAIAH MUSTAFA, RICHARD DREYFUSS) (publicity still)

In the opening sequence, there are a few of the familiar “Western” tropes to set the mood and the scene for the rest of the film. There is, of course, the appearance of a stranger in town… a quiet, observant, somewhat moody stranger who quotes Shakespeare. As this stranger (played with brooding intensity by Isaiah Mustafa) approaches Yellowstone City, Montana, he is stopped dead in his tracks (well… his horse’s tracks) by an explosion. That explosion turns out to be a nightmare for the stranger: One Robert Dunnigan (Zach McGowan in a small but integral role, though he does appear more after his death than before) was blowing open a long-closed gold mine and, hitting the mother lode, begins making tracks to his shack in the woods. His ramshackle abode was merely a stopping off place so he could tell his wife, Emma (Scottie Thompson), that he found gold and he was heading to town.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ZACH MCGOWAN, AIMEE GARCIA, EMMA KENNEY, ISAIAH MUSTAFA) (publicity still)

In town, the preacher, Thaddeus Murphy (Thomas Jane), rings the bell for the Sunday morning call-to-worship. Sheriff James Ambrose (Gabriel Bryne), looking for his son (Nat Wolff), finds him in the saloon (which, apparently, is also the town hotel, brothel and bathhouse). With the help of one of the working women, Isabel (Aimee Garcia), Ambrose rousts Jimmy from a hand of poker and into the church. Shortly after, the stranger rides into town, eyed by every person not inside the house of worship. Looking for a room, he is directed to the saloon, where he recites Shakespeare with one of the saloon owners, Edgar (Richard Dreyfuss), who tells him to be careful because the townfolk don’t understand anything but plain and simple. Inside the church, Pastor Murphy is just beginning his sermon as Mister Dunnigan rides into town, guns blazing, yelling that he’s struck it rich. After buying almost the entire town a round and offering the men jobs at his mine, he heads upstairs for a roll with his favorite girl, Isabel. All the while, the stranger sits in a corner alone, taking everything in. When one of the men demands payment for a past gambling debt, it looks like Robert Dunnigan’s celebration may be short-lived and the stranger’s hand automatically goes to his holster. Cooler heads (and the sheriff’s gun pointed between the gambler’s eyes) prevail and the party continues. Headed home after a hard day’s drinking and carousing, someone takes a potshot at Dunnigan, shooting his horse out from under him; obviously in fear of losing his gold, Dunnigan keeps a rapid-fire string of questions, pleas and bargaining opportunities aimed at his attacker while unloading both of his pistols in the general direction of where the shots came from. Of course, all of this shouting makes it that much easier for his assailant to find him in the dark. Taking aim, the shooter hits poor Robert in the back but, just to make sure he’s done the job, he slits his throat for good measure. Now, once his body is found, the sheriff and his deputies are certain of the killer. I mean, there’s only one new man in town so… it must be him, right? And, of course, the stranger’s refusal to speak and the fact that he had money only added to Sheriff Ambrose’s belief that he had his man.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ANNA CAMP) (publicity still)

Amidst all of the death and brutality (and there is a LOT!), there are some truly sweet moments in MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY. These mostly involve Pastor Murphy’s wife, Alice (Anna Camp), a woman who takes the “ministering” aspect of Christianity to heart, holding Bible studies with the women of Yellowstone City (including the “working” women of the brothel, holding the meetings at their place of business), visiting the sick and, of course, the stranger in his cell. Another pure soul, Violet Running Horse (Tanaya Beatty), was orphaned when a band of white men burned her family’s village and killed everyone in it; Edgar and his partner, Mickey (John Ales), looking for a better life out west, found the child when they happened upon the carnage, nursed her back to health and raised her. Violet operates the livery stables and is the first person the (as yet nameless) stranger meets. After a short exchange regarding the talismans hanging from the man’s saddle and, naturally, the length of his stay in town, the care of his horse and belongings, as well as where he can get a drink and a room. As mentioned earlier, she points him in the direction of the hotel/saloon. All of this obviously takes place right after Dunnigan disrupts the quiet Sunday morning. The next night, Robert Dunnigan is dead and the stranger is arrested. Violet realizes that he could not have killed Dunnigan because his horse and saddle had not been touched since he left them in her care; unimpressed, Sheriff Ambrose thanks her for the information but tells her that there are other ways for a man to get out of town.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ISABELLA RUBY) (publicity still)

Aside from Edgar, the next person the stranger speaks to is Alice Murphy. The preacher’s wife, after having told her husband that he may be good at sermonizing but not at ministering, was there to minister to a soul in need. Alice asks the man his name. “Cicero,” is his reply. “Cicero? Like the philosopher?” Cicero explains that it is the name of a character in a play who delivers a speech that he dreams of reciting. He also tells Alice that, as a former slave, he has no family and no family name… he raised himself. The preacher’s wife is the moral compass in Yellowstone City, gently prodding her husband to do the right thing. The same morning that she tells him that she’s going to visit the prisoner, a gunshot rings out. It’s one of Isabel’s (yes… THAT Isabel) charges, an orphan girl named Josephine (or Josie, played by newcomer Isabella Ruby) shooting at cans in the cemetery. Thaddeus says, “It’s Josephine. You know, she could use a little ministering, too.” With a smile and a laugh, Alice tells him “What she could use is a father or… someone like that she could look up to.” Getting the point, the good parson heads out to the graveyard:

“You shouldn’t be shootin’ at graves.”

“Ain’t like I’m hittin’ it.”

“You’re tryin’ too hard… you’re waiting for the gunfire. It’s not about the violence.”

“It is violent. It’s a rifle.”

As the preacher tells her to relax and helps her adjust how she’s holding, aiming and firing the weapon, Josie asks, “What do you know about guns?” A question that will be answered later in the film. As she takes aim once more, she actually hits the headstone where she placed her target. “Ain’t there somewhere better around here we can shoot?”

“That man killed my father.”

“Go ahead then.” The next shot hits the can. “Let’s set ‘em up.” It’s one of the sweet moments that make MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY more than your typical Western or “who done it” murder mysteries. The young Miss Ruby has several career-making scenes and Josephine proves to be much more than the Bible quoting young lady we first meet. During the forty minute shootout that ends the story proper, she is wounded and does quite a bit of damage herself.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (JOHN ALES, DANNY BOHNEN, GABRIEL BYRNE, LEW TEMPLE, NAT WOLFF) (publicity still)

Throughout the film, the body count continues to rise… and unfortunately, for the prisoner, the night of the second murder (more throat slitting), the deputy in charge of watching over him is otherwise occupied with one of the ladies from the saloon and, thus occupied, doesn’t hear someone come in and unlock the cell door, allowing the prisoner to “escape.” Of course, sensing that he was being railroaded and, more than likely, headed to the gallows, he took the opportunity to get out of Yellowstone.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (THOMAS JANE) (publicity still)

Dunnigan continues to appear, first stinking up the church before his burial and later, after being disinterred by Murphy, as what could be considered the first case of forensic exploration ever performed; the preacher is now certain that Cicero could not have been Dunnigan’s murderer because the bullet he retrieved from the corpse was not fired from the kind of gun that the stranger uses. Things pick up considerably from that point leading to the already mentioned gunfight. As this is just as much a murder mystery as it is a straight Western, I don’t want to give too much away so… just let me say that MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY reminds me of one of my all-time favorite movies – Western or otherwise – 1968’s FIVE CARD STUD starring Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum and Roddy McDowell. I wholeheartedly recommend this dark, engaging film. A star-filled cast doesn’t hurt its chances of reaching a wider audience than most recent Westerns have enjoyed and a strong script by Eric Belgau and deft genre-wise direction by Richard Gray makes it one of the best films of the year.

DVD/Blu-Ray HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies | Darren Tracy | |   Aimee Garcia Anna Camp DVD/Blu-Ray Eric Belgau Gabriel Byrne Isabella Ruby Isaiah Mustafa John Ales Montana Movie MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY Murder Mytery Nat Wolff Richard Dreyfuss Richard Gray RLJ Entertainment Scottie Thompson Tanaya Beatty Thomas Jane Unrated Video-On-Demand Western Zach McGowan

FROST

(CLEOPATRA EENTERTAINMENT/SNOW LEOPARD ENTERTAINMENT/SANDALED KID PRODUCTIONS/JCB PICTURES/MULTIVERSE CINEMA (80 minutes; Unrated); 2022)

There are many reasons to watch a movie: we want to enjoy a riveting tale, we want to laugh, we want to be in suspense or get scared, or we want to enjoy our favorite stars strutting their stuff and portraying compelling character. I don’t know anyone who would knowingly choose to watch a movie about someone SUFFERING. But that is what you’ll be experiencing for the 80 minutes that comprise FROST, a nonetheless fascinating and challenging little flick from director Brandon Slagle. Let me just say upfront that actress Devanny Pinn, who plays a pregnant young woman named Abby in this movie, turns in one of the most insanely stressed-out performances ever filmed, and she deserves some sort of special award for her work here. Pinn is confined inside a crashed vehicle for nearly this entire movie, seriously injured and about to give birth, trapped on a mountainside with an approaching snowstorm. It’s a thankless, horrendous situation and no matter WHAT else a person might think about this movie, you have a major actress giving her all here. It’s cumulatively more and more jaw-dropping as the movie progresses. The simple plot is that Abby is visiting her partially estranged father Grant (Vernon Wells) somewhere out west, and over dinner we learn that he drinks too much for Abby’s taste, can be rude, and doesn’t do much of anything to impress her. And yet, he loves her, and they agree to go on a father-daughter fishing trip despite the forecast of a winter storm. Naturally, an inattentive moment causes Grant to veer off the road and crash into a tree, with one limb going straight through the windshield and into Abby’s chest. Jagged pieces of glass are everywhere, and the car is perched on the edge of a dropoff. Grant is able to squirm out of his seat, but if Abby tries to do the same, the car will plunge off the edge and kill her. And she can barely move or maneuver at all. So the plan is, Grant will seek help (the pair have walkie-talkies) and return to save Abby and her soon-to-be newborn. But she’ll have to tough it out in the ruined automobile, and try to stay warm as best she can before the weather worsens. A grim setup, for sure. What follows is one incident after another of Abby talking to herself, talking to her unborn, utilizing whatever still works on the car to her advantage, and trying to find something to eat, which in one revolting scene, includes sampling her dad’s nightcrawlers. Pinn is absolutely believable here, playing the role of a desperate, trapped woman hanging onto shreds of hope and constantly trying to reach her dad to get “progress reports.” She tries to treat one of her own injuries, not a pleasant scene to watch, and there is a remarkable scene involving a wolf who discovers her and has a motive that she must do everything she can to foil. It’s all very, very unsettling, and yes, it will test the patience of many viewers. You are seeing a woman suffer here. NOT being tortured or stalked like in standard horror movies. Just enduring a hopeless situation. And enduring And enduring. And enduring more…

FROST (DEVANNY PINN) (publicity still)

It’s worth mentioning this film in terms of “horror movies,” because it’s mostly a wilderness adventure movie overall. Not all that realistic at times (I doubt most women would’ve made it as long as Abby given these circumstances). However, in the last ten minutes of the film, it does indeed turn to horror. I’m not going to say how, as that would spoil the “fun” for those of you who plan to see this. But I was genuinely shocked by the concluding section, as I did NOT see these events coming and literally could not believe what the filmmaker decided to show us. There are undoubtedly some viewers who will tune this film out before the final outrage, and that’s to be expected. But I give this film credit for NOT following the formula of this kind of scenario, and for deciding to make this’un a meditation on pure desperation rather than a conventional “rescue” situation. Just be warned, it is GRIM on every level. What we’re allowed to see of the scenery is kind of beautiful, and occasionally (but not always) the music is effective. And you gotta give writers James Cullen Bressack and Robert Thompson (screenplay) credit for crafting a small, personal largely one-character film and making it brutally realistic down to minute details. But… this is a fairly trying viewing experience. I take away from it two main things: that Devanny Pinn is a supremely ambitious and brave actress, one to watch for sure. And that some filmmakers like to set up one set of expectations and then “stick it to you” in the end. That’s certainly what they do in FROST, and sick as it is, I kinda admire them for it.

DVD/Blu-Ray HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies | Kevin Renick | |   Brandon Slagle Devanny Pinn Digital DVD/Blu-Ray Family Drama FROST Movie Thriller Vernon Wells

THE ANDY BAKER TAPE

(TERROR FILMS/4:02 PRODUCTIONS (69 minutes; Unrated); 2021)

The “found footage” phenomenon in the cinematic universe turned out to be a clever new wrinkle, one that found more creative approaches than the average person might think. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT turned out to be one of the most purely profitable films in history, having been made on a shoestring budget by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, but then utilizing a compelling and unique promotional approach that drew audiences in droves. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY spawned a seemingly endless franchise, and there have been plenty of other movies that utilized the found footage thing successfully. Now we have THE ANDY BAKER TAPE, and while it hardly breaks new ground, it does show you can keep viewers interested in this kind of approach with a suspenseful setup and interesting actors. The film has both, with just two characters, Jeff Blake (Bret Lada, who also directs) and Andy Baker (Dustin Fontaine) holding your attention for a film that lasts little more than an hour. Blake is a culinary specialist hoping to finalize plans for his own show on the Food Network. He recruits his half brother, the titular Andy, to help him scout out some locations and hopefully interact with him in some scenes. This would seem to be a workable enough proposition, except that… Andy turns out to be kind of weird. He can’t seem to simply play to the camera for ordinary questions Jeff asks him, and he gets offended over nothing at all at times, keeping Jeff on edge. Lurking in the past for both men is the death of their father, whom Jeff says was killed in a horrible car accident. And both have the spectre of failure uppermost in their minds – Jeff because of the uncertainty of the offer for his own foodie show, and Andy because of a “deal” he was counting on that… falls through. Which has happened to him before.

THE ANDY BAKER TAPE (BRET LADA, DUSTIN FONTAINE) (publicity still)

We see these two guys checking out eateries in rural America, getting more and more impatient with each other (impatience is a wicked sort of behavioral thing in this movie), and battling at times for control of the big, mostly unseen camera. We’re told right at the beginning, just as with other movies in this genre, that their “footage” was put together from many hours that were “discovered” after the two disappeared. Eventually there are a few bad things that happen, mostly pointing at Andy as being… a bad and disturbed dude. I do count myself as a fan of unhinged behavior, and I don’t need every single thing explained to me. I DO hope for good, believable performances, and thankfully these two actors are quite convincing overall. Lada is a charismatic, dark-haired chap that is convincingly distraught when he discovers that his half-brother is not a trustworthy character. Fontaine is scruffier and harder to pin down in his behavior and motivations, but that’s the point. What do you do when you’re trying to achieve a career breakthrough and a relative seems like he could help at first, but then ends up threatening every single thing? “You can’t pick your family” is the tag line here, and boy is Jeff Blake sorry for THAT!

THE ANDY BAKER TAPE (DUSTIN FONTAINE, BRET LADA) (publicity still)

The quick running time, evocative empty landscapes, and most of all, the conviction in the lead performances make THE ANDY BAKER TAPE a more than worthy view. There really aren’t that many films out there that I’m aware of, that only focus on TWO guys interacting. Seeing ordinary behavior turn into something unsettling and then horrifying, is a more than relevant theme in these crazy times. So yeah, I appreciated this film quite a bit when I watched it in the middle of the night. And it’s without a doubt a worthy addition to the “found footage canon.”

HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies | Kevin Renick | |   Bret Lada Digital Dustin Fontaine Horror Movie Psychological Thriller Terror Films THE ANDY BAKER TAPE

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

( …AND TO REVIVE A MAGICAL EVENING WITH MARY BADHAM AND MY MOM)

Kevin with actress Mary Badham (on his left) and his mother, Annabelle, circa January 2009 (family photo)

Actress Mary Badham. The legendary film TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. My late mother, Annabelle, who died in 2009. The prevalence of racism and bad behavior in America today. All of these things hit me in a whole new way this past week when I accidentally stumbled across the original recording of an in-person interview I did with Ms Badham back in 2009, a piece that is no longer available online (it originally appeared on the defunct PlaybackSTL site). I’m sharing most of the complete interview here, but more importantly, the context has changed considerably, rendering this trip into the past more than a little noteworthy. Yes, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is still one of my three or four all-time favorite movies, and yes, racism still exists… not just the straightforward kind that is depicted in the classic 1961 film, but a far more widespread and violent strain that makes the news somewhere almost daily. I can talk about either subject for hours. But this old interview captures transcendent moments from the last “evening out” that my mom and I enjoyed together, in January 2009. Just a few weeks after the occasion that led to this interview, a revival of TKAM at Washington University’s Edison Theatre, my mom suffered a terrible fall. She was seriously injured, and despite some promising efforts by a couple of doctors to get her to recover, it wasn’t meant to be. She slipped away in April 2009. Among many, many things that were noteworthy about my mom was her gift for cheerful understatement, and occasionally, eyebrow-raising surprise. A bombshell she dropped on her four kids one day was that she had gotten to hang out with author Harper Lee one day and see a screening of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with her the year it opened, thanks to a mutual friend named Mae McCleavey. I never sat down and interviewed Mom herself, despite knowing I probably SHOULD on many an occasion. If I told most people that the reclusive author watched the movie made of her masterpiece with my own mother, I wouldn’t blame them for being skeptical. How could such a thing happen? But… this interview features a golden moment, Mom actually telling Mary Badham, the gifted actress who played Scout in the movie, that yes, she sat in a theatre with Harper Lee. Hearing her speak after all these years is more than a little emotional for me, as is virtually everything Mary had to say about the film. So yes, this one is “from the vaults” all right, but in light of the context the present day provides, it might as well be new. I’m grateful I came across this, because the disc on which it appears was not labeled accurately.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (GREGORY PECK) (publicity still)

I don’t have to repeat the praise here that I bestowed on the Gregory Peck masterpiece in my original article. TKAM is a beloved film all over the world, one of Hollywood’s most successful film adaptations ever, not to mention the historical impact of Harper Lee’s original novel (which STILL finds crackpot right-wingers trying to ban it even today cause of all that “critical race theory” stuff. Don’t get me started). But what I am happy to share is that the movie was a singularly worthy entry in the family-viewing contest I experienced growing up and beyond. Very, very few movies could meet the approval of every single member of my family – varied bunch that we were – when we would get together to watch something. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD stood almost alone in that regard. Both the snobbiest among us and the most open-minded among us were willing to watch the exploits of Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem (and that Boo Radley guy) for yet another time. And to a person, we were all emotional afterward… again. “What a great movie!” someone would remark. How amazing a thing, that this remark could have come from any of the six of us. That, my friends, is unprecedented. When I met the adult Mary Badham, the lady who gave what is easily one of the best performances by a child actress in history (I told her as much, which was a thrill for me), I had a chance to tell her about our family viewings of the film, how my sister would sometimes say “Hey, Boo!” when she called me up, how one of us might query the other, “What in the Sam Hill are ya DOING?,” gleefully reciting another of Scout’s great lines from the film, and how I’d written to Gregory Peck once when he was still alive, talking about my love for the film. He sent me an autographed photo, bless his heart. And upon meeting Mary Badham, I got HER autograph on a famous pose of her and Peck, meaning that I’ve got a treasured scrawl from the two main stars of a genuine movie masterpiece. Yes, I’m a fanboy for stuff like this. Can’t help it. Mary was tickled by my enthusiasm, but she’s heard these things so many, many times… as the interview makes clear. And sitting nearby, respectfully not interrupting until the very end, was my mother. The whole thing is just unbelievable to me, honestly. My last “night out” with Mom, spent in the company of “Scout”! Not bad, eh? So here’s that interview from January 2009…

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MARY BADHAM, GREGORY PECK) (publicity still)

THE MULE: What stands out the most from your time filming the movie?

MARY: Mostly just having fun. We had a ball! We really did. We played a lot, we laughed a lot… it was playtime! It wasn’t like work. Our wonderful director, Bob Mulligan, he made it so easy. He really did. All these guys had small children they were dealing with at home at that period in time. So they knew how to communicate with children. We had so much fun!

THE MULE: They had a certain way of talking to you, then?

MARY: Yeah, very easy. Real down to earth. They didn’t talk down to us. Bob Mulligan, one of the things that made him such a fabulous director… he would get down to our level, he would kneel, literally, just squat down and talk to us face to face like two adults talking. I never remember him talking down to us. It was always like, “Okay, this is the deal, this is what we’re gonna do.” And that’s what we did! It was great fun.

THE MULE: I guess you had to do multiple takes of scenes?

MARY: Oh yeah. Whenever you’re shooting a film, you wanna get different angles that you can cut together. But I had a particular problem. I not only knew MY lines, I knew everybody else’s! If I thought someone was struggling, I would sit there and mouth the lines! Bob would yell “Cut! Now, dear… this is film! We can see your mouth moving. Please don’t do that!” (Mary chuckled at this point in the interview) Poor Phillip (Alford, who plays Gem). It made him crazy! I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for that!

THE MULE: You guys keep in touch?

MARY: Oh yeah! I’m probably closer to him than I am to my own brothers. He’s so funny! Wish he could be here tonight, but he’s on another job.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MARY BADHAM, GREGORY PECK, PHILLIP ALFORD) (publicity still)

THE MULE: And you’ve talked elsewhere about how much you enjoyed working with Gregory Peck. Not a bad gig for a youngster!

MARY: It was wonderful. We had a fabulous relationship that lasted right up until before his death. I was up to the house just a few weeks before. His whole family has been just so lovely through the years. They’ve been a great source of comfort for me. I lost my parents very early. My mom died three weeks after I graduated from high school, and my dad died, like, two years after I got married, and I got married when I was 21. So to have that kind of a role model was wonderful. He really imprinted on me some basic things, of getting a good education, of working hard, coming to work prepared or doing your job well.

THE MULE: You absorbed a lot from him…

MARY: I mean, it was also all the years in between! It was nothing for me to pick up the phone and he’d say, ‘Hi kiddo, whatcha doing?’ When you’re living in a trailer in Loachapoka, Alabama, in the middle of a field, getting blown away by tornadoes, it’s kind of a comforting thing to have Gregory Peck call you on the phone and go, ‘How ya doing, kiddo?’ He was just so awesome.

THE MULE: His influence on the law profession is legendary, also; much has been written about that. Everyone knows about Atticus Finch.

MARY: Absolutely. When we were on the road in his one-man show, I could not tell you the number of people in the audience that said either they became a lawyer or their daughter, or their son or some member of their family became a lawyer because of his role. And they still use it in law schools. They teach TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Which I think is wonderful!

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MARY BADHAM, GREGORY PECK) (publicity still)

THE MULE: The legacy of the film is unprecedented, honestly. Few works of art have had such a widespread influence. What has that been like for you through the years?

MARY: It’s pretty amazing. I tell people constantly, this is not just a black and white 1930s issue. This book touches on family issues, social issues, women’s issues, racial issues. The whole nine yards. And everything that’s important about the way we need to live our lives, and the way we need to think about our culture and our country, it’s all there. That’s what makes it important. Let’s face it, bigotry and racism and hatred and ignorance haven’t gone anywhere. They’ve just changed their clothes, that’s all. So it’s all things that we need to pay attention to. We need to work toward making ourselves better. Getting our education system fixed. Getting our families fixed FIRST, education second. We’ve really got to get control of all those things.

THE MULE: It’s a miracle how this film seems to appeal to just about everyone… my family watched it repeatedly through the years. We all loved it!

MARY: It’s wonderful. There’s families that sit and watch this film every year. It’s an annual event that they do, like, before Christmas or during fall. Fall seems to be the choice of times when most people do it. But there are whole families that just gather around and watch it.

THE MULE: There are so many scenes imprinted on my psyche. When Scout first sees Boo Radley, and she wrinkles up her face and takes time to get out the words “Hey, Boo,” I gotta tell you, that scene brought tears to my eyes more than once. I kinda feel what you did there, it’s BEYOND acting. It’s like UBER-ACTING or something. Just transcendent.

MARY: (Mary smiles and nods at this point in our interview) The one that gets me is in the courtroom, when they say, “Jean-Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing!”

THE MULE: Oh golly, my friend Kathy has mentioned that same scene to me before, she loves it also! How did you get this part in the first place?

MARY: My mom was an actress, she was with the local town theatre. And she took me in to try out. I didn’t know anything, I was just this dumb little kid from Alabama.

THE MULE: (I express amazement that Mary had no previous acting experience. After all, she became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her work in the film)

MARY: You have to understand… the script and the life portrayed; everything was so close to my real life.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (GREGORY PECK, BROCK PETERS) (publicity still)

It was at this point in the interview that a couple of reps came along to alert Mary it was time for her next interview. Graciously, however, she chatted with my mother for a few more moments. Mom told her it was all true how much my family loved the movie, and how we quoted the dialogue often. I asked if she had mentioned to Mary yet about seeing the film with the author. She grinned broadly and pointed to three imaginary seats.

“I sat RIGHT here with the teacher. And Harper. And ME!”

“That’s just amazing!” Mary whispered.

ANNABELLE AND KEVIN RENICK (family photo)

Mom and I then posed for two memorable photos with Ms Badham and hugged her, before reluctantly but giddily moving on. I was emotionally moved to the point of almost being speechless. There weren’t any adequate words to sum up what I was experiencing. And now, 13 years later, there still aren’t. To paraphrase a line from the classic film itself: “I was to think of these things many times… of Mary Badham, of my enthusiastic mother, of the impact of a beautiful movie on both the world and my own heart, and how I got to sit face to face with ‘Scout,’ and tell her how grateful I was for what she’d given us.”

MARY BADHAM, currently on tour with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD as Mrs Henry Dubose (left photo courtesy: DKC/O&M, right photo credit: JULIETA CERVANTES)

UPDATE: Mary Badham can currently be seen as Mrs Dubose in a touring production of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD that also features Richard Thomas as Atticus and Melanie Moore as Scout. The production was originally supposed to hit Broadway for a spell, but one of the producers decided that would not be financially feasible. TKAM fans will have plenty of other chances to enjoy the fabled story as it comes to cities throughout the country up through June 2023. Aaron Sorkin adapted this production from Harper Lee’s novel, with Jeff Daniels earning widespread acclaim for his performance as Atticus in the initial run on Broadway. You can read more about the touring show at: tokillamockingbirdbroadway.com/tour/.

Actor/Creator Features/Interviews BROKEN LEGS AND FRAGILE EGOS HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Stage Productions – Drama | Kevin Renick | |   Aaron Sorkin Bob Mulligan Classic Movie Courtroom Drama Drama Family Drama Gregory Peck Harper Lee Mary Badham Melanie Moore Movie Adaptation Phillip Alford PlaybackSTL Richard Thomas Stage Adaptation TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Touring Stage Production

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG, SEASON ONE

(PALOMAR MEDIAWAN/BRON STUDIOS/AMC+/RLJ ENTERTAINMENT (419 minutes; Unrated); 2022)

So, when the first episode of the AMC+ series THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG debuted, I watched it two or three times. Each time, I found myself more confused about what was going on. I mean, I understood the basic concept: Ruthless bounty hunter, unscrupulous and corrupt sheriff, random horse-thievery, even more random drug use… a lot of death and mayhem, all in a wild homage to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. I think that one of my problems with the episode, brilliantly titled “A Head Weighs Less Than a Body”, is that two of the main characters – bounty hunter Red Bill (Douglas Booth) and the severely put-upon farmer, Steve (Christian Cooke) – look enough alike to these tired old eyes that I had a hard time following their separate stories. Now, with the entire first season available on DVD and Blu-Ray, I’ve been given the chance to revisit that first episode and, well… it still confused the heck out of me! But, one must soldier on and, I must say, the series as a whole did not disappoint.

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG (DOMINIC COOPER, BENJAMIN STENDER, DANIEL CALTAGIRONE, IVAN SHAW) (photo credit: STEFANO C MONTESI/AMC+)

Right out of the gate, it was obvious that this was different kind of Western; Red Bill had hunted his bounty to a remote mission, where the hunted man had killed every person in the church, stealing not only the offering money, but the money and valuables of his victims. Bill meets him as he is leaving, his grisly work done. Bill throws a bag (yeah… that one, though it’s a lot cleaner at this point) at his prey’s feet and, when the outlaw draws on him, disables his gun hand. With the bounty lying at his feet dying, Bill pulls out an ax and decapitates the man and places the head – you guessed it – in the bag. From there, things get a bit more… confusing. With proof of the death of the outlaw, Bill goes in search of the sheriff of the bone-dry former boomtown of Greenvale, a place that hasn’t seen rain in five years. Water is scarce and, of course, there are a couple of ingenious entrepreneurs who charge premium prices for the little they have. The sheriff, McCoy (played with understated relish by Dominic Cooper), enjoys pouring water onto the floor (or the dirt street or wherever he happens to be) to make a point: “I am the law here and you are here only because I say you can be here.” He, naturally, refuses to pay the bounty on Bill’s capture so Bill, naturally, walks out of the saloon where he found McCoy and takes the sheriff’s horse. That’s certainly a lot to unpack and it’s all in the first 20 minutes of that first episode! Over the course of the first three episodes, we see lies, deceit, murder (in a particularly disturbing scene, McCoy shoots a slow-witted teen – who only wanted to please the lawman – in the back), kidnapping, backstabbing (both metaphorical and literal), an odd sidestep featuring a vengeful serial killer, a secret sect and, hey, just for kicks, let’s toss in some random cannibalism in episode 4.

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG (ROSE WILLIAMS) (photo credit: STEFANO C MONTESI/AMC+)

A viewer’s review on IMDb says that things pick up and start to fall into place after Episode 4, which is called “Genesis” and, as the name would imply, is a prequel of sorts for everything that’s happening in the other episodes: How McCoy came to be the villain of the piece and what set Bill on the path to becoming Red Bill. Anything past the halfway point, I’m not gonna touch because I don’t want to give too much away. However, here’s my takeaway from the first three episodes: Just about everyone has a deep dark secret.

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG (DOMINIC COOPER, NIV SULTAN) (photo credit: STEFANO C MONTESI/AMC+)

First, Steve, the pious and extremely unlucky farmer (who had his plow horses stolen at the beginning of Episode 1) has a couple of secrets that he’s keeping from almost everyone: First, he’s discovered gold on his land. Secondly, the only person he’s told is his mistress, Eve (played by Niv Sultan), who runs the local bordello and is one of two people who have access to whatever water that’s available… even his wife doesn’t know. Eve has a secret of her own and the only person that knows is, of course, our pious farmer friend. What’s the dreaded secret that she holds? Eve is bald which, apparently, is a big turn-on for Steve, not so much for the Sheriff. Speaking of, McCoy has some secrets, too. First, as we see in “Genesis,” he has had a fairly circumlocutious journey toward his position as Greenvale’s chief law enforcement officer. Second, he and his right hand man, Kurt (Ivan Shaw as the matter-of-fact, no-nonsense voice-of-reason to his boss’ hotheaded, brutally extravagant flights of fancy), had a wagon-load of money belonging to the Federal government drop into their hands quite by accident: The wagon’s guard thought that they were there to steal the money and was about to open fire on the pair before McCoy blasted him out of existence. Kurt, likewise, must have something that he knows about McCoy and is holding it over his head because every time the sheriff gets mad at him and threatens to kill him, he just laughs and walks away. Finally, Nathan (Benjamin Stender), another of McCoy’s minions has a couple of secrets, as well. Since his wife’s death, he has frequented Eve’s establishment, the Red Lantern, looking for love; he has found that love in Symone and has asked her to be his wife. The mistress is less than pleased at the prospect of losing one of her best workers and refuses to allow Symone to marry. The problem here is that Nathan promised his very young daughter that he was bringing her a new mommy. As Nathan confronts Symone about her decision not to become his wife, he lets slip that he has promised his Mary a new mother. Symone is mildly amused, telling her insistent beau that she was not mother material for which she receives a brutal beating (as all beatings tend to be here). When Eve sees his handiwork, she takes matters into her own hands, making sweet little Mary an orphan. And, of course, the whole time, Red Bill’s dirty black bag gets dirtier, blacker and now, with another head added to the collection, heavier.

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG (DOUGLAS BOOTH, DOMINIC COOPER) (photo credit: STEFANO C MONTESI/AMC+)

So, without spilling any beans about the second half of the season (or how that second head ended up in Bill’s bag), just know that there is much more deceit, backstabbing, blood, guts and general mayhem to be had. As the previously mentioned IMDb reviewer said, things do become clearer after “Genesis,” with everything kind of tied up in a nice, big bow named Bronson (Guido Caprino). It’s gonna be fun seeing where the story goes after this season, as the series is currently mapped out to go three seasons of eight episodes each.

THAT DIRTY BLACK BAG (GUIDO CPRINO) (photo credit: STEFANO C MONTESI/AMC+)
DVD/Blu-Ray HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Television | Darren Tracy | |   AMC+ Benjamin Stender CHristian Cooke Dominic Cooper Douglas Booth DVD/Blu-Ray Guido Caprino Gunplay Ivan Shaw Kidnapping Niv Sultan Prostitution Revenge Rose Williams Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western Streaming Series Streaming Video THAT DIRTY BROWN BAG Unrated Violence Western

THE BEATLES: GET BACK

(DISNEY PICTURES/APPLE CORPS LTD/WINGNUT FILMS (468 minutes; Rated PG-13); 2021)

You can’t really argue that GET BACK, the new three-part documentary directed by Peter Jackson about a pivotal month in the life of the Beatles during their last year together, isn’t THE cultural media event of Fall 2021. It’s been talked about for months, Paul McCartney himself did an NPR interview in which he discussed it, and it aroused the emotions of Beatle fans everywhere when the pandemic caused the project to morph from an intended theatrical film to a much longer documentary to be streamed exclusively on Disney+, the company’s streaming service, for three nights over the Thanksgiving holiday. Speculation in advance was intense, as one contingent of fans feared it would “whitewash” the long-discussed tensions of the Fab Four in their final days (which the previous LET IT BE documentary certainly left one with knowledge of), and another contingent waited for validation of long held beliefs: that Yoko broke up the Beatles, that Paul was a dictatorial tyrant in those last days, that George Harrison had simply had enough and stormed out in anger, and that the lads were simply incapable of working together creatively anymore after the many pressures of being the most successful and influential rock band in history.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (John Lennon, Peter Jackson) (publicity still)

Well, then. New Zealand’s legendary director Jackson, never having been shy about tackling enormous, “impossible” projects (remember that LORD OF THE RINGS thing?) has a mega documentary for YOU! And guess what? You can put everything you thought you knew about the Beatles’ final days aside, and marvel at the intimate scope and cumulative effect of this roughly eight-hour saga and the many revelations it contains. First, some clarity: This is not really a film about the “final days” of the Fabs. What we have here is a cinema diary of just over three weeks from January 1969, when the band was working on a planned project that became LET IT BE, intended to be a film, album and concert that would capture their intention to “get back” to a more youthful, spontaneous atmosphere that’d harken back to… well, when they were more youthful and spontaneous. A look at the ACTUAL last days of the Beatles would focus on the ABBEY ROAD recording, the massive tensions created by Allen Klein being hired to manage their financial affairs (a pivotal decision supported by all but McCartney, who fought it tooth and nail and had to sue the other three to put an end to Klein’s shady practices), and John Lennon’s increasing desire to be with Yoko and do his own thing instead of being wrapped up in the monstrous machine that was THE BEATLES. You see all the seeds of this stuff in Jackson’s doc: Klein is introduced in the latter half of it, Yoko is seen at John’s side throughout most of the footage, and songs that later appeared on ABBEY ROAD are indeed rehearsed and talked about in many segments. But no, this is NOT an investigation of what broke up the Beatles. Jackson was given access to 60+ hours of unseen video and roughly 150 hours of unheard audio, and from this massive trove, he culled together a day-by-day record of what John, Paul, George and Ringo were doing during those fabled days first at Twickenham Studio (where they were under pressure to get stuff done before the movie THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN was to take over the place, starring Ringo and Peter Sellers), and later at #3 Saville Row, home to the Beatles’ own Apple Records label. The band had a reasonably interesting project in mind; you can’t fault their intentions, and all seemed eager to dive in and work after a fairly long break following the White Album. But things did NOT go smoothly, and we see quite clearly that they were in over their heads, unable to figure out WHERE to stage a live performance, WHICH songs to record and HOW to carry on efficiently without a “daddy figure” (as McCartney refers to Brian Epstein, who’d previously sheltered the boys to some extent from the worst tensions brought on by fame and industry pressures). Jackson had an absolutely daunting task here: All this footage has been buried in a vault for half a century, and the Beatles clearly had NO taste for delving into a pile o’ stuff that would, rumor had it, show them in their worst moments, unable to cooperate with each other long enough to simply record a new album and go on about the business of being the world’s biggest band.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison) (publicity still)

Except, that is not what happened. The story was WAY more complex than that, and not nearly so bleak. This amazing documentary allows us to travel back in time and be “flies on the wall” at the daily recording sessions, where the four lads discuss various songs and impulses, jam spontaneously, and gradually shape the compositions that would eventually become the songs most of us know like the back of our hands by now. Repeated segments showing the evolution of songs such as “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Two of Us” are fascinating, and from a songwriting point of view, the insight into the process is invaluable. You may get sick of some of the repetition, but I’m pretty sure most committed Beatles fans won’t mind at all. To see how “Get Back” evolved from being a “protest song” about immigrants to a more aesthetically vague pop/rock tune that the boys agreed should be the next single, is captivating. And “Two of Us” has layers of resonance about the close relationship between Paul and John, both in the actual lyrics of the song (“You and I have memories/Longer than the road that stretches/Out ahead… “) and in the discussions we are privy to about the arrangement, in terms of whether it should be a simple acoustic song or something more sonically dense, with many scenes showing the two most famous songwriters working closely together to try to get it right. They ALL want to do that, and these things take TIME. Plain and simple. We see them getting impatient, making fun of themselves, and trying various things over and over. It could and does get tedious at times. The infamous exchange between Paul and George where the latter mutters that he’ll “play anything you want, or I won’t play at all if it will please you… ” that was a focal point in LET IT BE, occurs here with much greater context, that primarily being that Paul was trying to be the taskmaster and keep the group focused, not only on specific arrangements but on getting things DONE in a timely manner. With the full backdrop of the proceedings on display here, it’s pretty reasonable, and George’s impatience is understandable, not because McCartney was a jerk, but because “it’s all too much” at times. Plain and simple.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon) (publicity still)

George, of course, does walk out for a while; every essay about this documentary has talked about that. In 1969, Harrison was truly coming into his own as a songwriter, and there are two pivotal scenes that deal with this. A remarkable private conversation between Paul and John is captured on audio. John declares, “It’s like George said, he didn’t get enough satisfaction anymore because of the compromise he had to make to be together… it’s a festering wound that we’ve allowed to… and yesterday we allowed it to go even deeper, and we didn’t give him any bandages.” Paul is listening, clearly, and responds: “Yeah, we treat him a bit like that. See, because he knows what we’re on about. But I do think that he’s right. That’s why I think we’ve got the problem now, the four of us. You go one way, George one way, and me another… “

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon) (photo credit LINDA MCCARTNEY/APPLE CORPS LTD)

The revelatory conversation continues with John openly stating he’s intimidated at times by Paul’s insistence on certain arrangements, and how he’s sometimes given up speaking out in favor of his own thing. He admits that “sometimes you’re right” to Paul, but that other times he has disagreed with the final results. In the context of all we know about the Beatles, this is just groundbreaking, to have this inside look at a tension-packed time. Meanwhile, we’re all aware of what was coming next for George Harrison. He was writing tons of new songs, including numbers like “All Things Must Pass,” “Isn’t It a Pity” and a little tune called “Something.” A much talked-about scene shows George struggling with the line to follow “Something in the way she moves/Attracts me like… ” Lennon comically suggests singing anything at all until a good fit is found. “Attracts me like a cauliflower,” he suggests, and a different scene shows George singing “attracts me like a pomegranate.” This is all pretty amusing, but when you step back for a moment and realize you’re seeing one of the greatest songs ever written in its infancy, a song that was obviously one of the highlights of the Beatles’ soon-to-be final studio album, ABBEY ROAD, you can’t help but be totally caught up in George’s place in music history right here. There’s a separate conversation between John and George where the latter tells John he’s written about “20 new songs” and that it would take ten more Beatle albums to get them all out there at the current rate of “two George songs per album.” George suggests he may just have to do a solo album, something which at first surprises John, and then seems to turn a light bulb on in his head. We all know what actually happened, and it’s simply another revelatory moment. So is seeing George being the pragmatic one through most of this documentary. While the others are brainstorming ludicrous ideas like doing a performance at an ancient historical site in Libya, or taking a selected group of fans on a large ship across the ocean to be the audience for whatever they’re gonna do, George wryly declares “We can’t even get Fender to send us a free amp.” This documentary will almost certainly increase your respect for George Harrison and his importance to the Beatles…

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Billy Preston, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison, Yoko Ono) (photo courtesy: THE BEATLES)

Does the film show Paul McCartney as a raging egomaniac? No, because they ALL clearly were. Remember, they were already the most famous group in the world with endless expectations heaped upon them everywhere. We get to see various members reading their own press at the time, richly entertaining, including George reading a bit about him and John coming to physical blows, an event that did NOT actually happen. Paul is definitely shown paying the most attention to specific song arrangements, and the reality of trying to meet their deadlines, but he is about collaboration all the way. It’s amazing to see him and John working together closely; you really WANT them to figure everything out and keep making remarkable music. Songs that never became official Beatle songs are given bits of time, such as McCartney’s “Teddy Boy” and “Another Day” and Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth” and “Child of Nature,” which would in a couple of years morph into “Jealous Guy.” And wow, is there some fun seeing early versions of ABBEY ROAD tracks like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (showing Beatles road manager Mal Evans banging a device gleefully), “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” and “Polythene Pam” enter the picture. Everything is a question mark in this film: WHAT songs will they record? WHAT songs will they play for whatever live concert they are going to do? How can they possibly deliver when they feel they only have maybe half a dozen songs with fully developed arrangements?

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison) (photo courtesy DISNEY PICTURES)

But what is NOT yet truly a question: Are the Beatles going to break up? NO, that is not yet obvious. There are no “fights” in the conventional sense here; the lads are having a good time, they clown around, they crack jokes. It’s surprising in particular to see how good-humored Lennon is most of the time. He’s happy to have Yoko around (SHE, by the way, is almost continually a gentle presence, never intrusive, and even defended by Paul in a couple of scenes (“they just wanna be together, you know… “). With remarkable foresight, Paul declares in one scene, “Wouldn’t it be funny if in 50 years people say, ‘Oh, Yoko broke up the Beatles because she sat on an amplifier?'” So there’s plenty of myth smashing in GET BACK. When this footage was being shot by original LET IT BE director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (looking more youthful than you’d think and probably a bit in over his head), there were still several possible futures for the Beatles. That is crucial, because this film is NOT a breakup film. It’s about ambition, mega fame, the ups and downs of collaboration, artistic egos stretched to the limit, and problem solving on a grand scale. Watch the happy look on John Lennon’s face when keyboardist Billy Preston enters the scene and shows effortlessly that he can spruce up the arrangements on some of these new songs. “You’re IN the band!” Lennon tells him. Watch a fetching Linda Eastman and her energetic young daughter Heather, respectively, holding hands with Paul and taking photos (Linda and Paul were two months away from their fabled wedding at the time of this footage) and dancing around the studio gleefully, exuberant as a young girl could be. And watch, for the first time, the legendary “rooftop concert” in its entirety, the Beatles’ final live appearance, which of course was filmed on top of Savile Row, to the delight of some on the street below and the consternation of many others, including the British bobbies, who amusingly try to shut things down because of complaints. People on the street are interviewed and shown in effective cross cuts as the Beatles play, reflecting a reasonable cross section of opinions. This is music history, folks. But it’s told in a fresh, fascinating manner that changes what we thought we knew about the Beatles. And Peter Jackson wisely avoids any present-day interviews… he stated his desire to avoid that sort of thing. Nope, this is time capsule stuff, our unique opportunity to experience what the Beatles were going through in January of 1969.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison) (photo courtesy: APPLE CORPS LIMITED)

It’s amazing, honestly. What was to follow was the group throwing up their hands in despair at their inability to complete the planned album (in a still controversial move, the whole thing was handed over to Phil Spector, resulting in an album that almost no one would be completely happy with), a stunning decision to record a brand-new studio album that would give George Martin one more chance to fully produce the band, George Harrison a chance to show he’d finally equalled the others in songwriting prowess, and give McCartney a chance to spearhead perhaps the greatest medley ever featured on a rock album; a furious legal battle over Allen Klein and the failure of the other three Beatles to stop McCartney from releasing his debut solo album BEFORE the release of LET IT BE (the accompanying press at the time appeared to show McCartney “officially” announcing the end of the Beatles, even though that isn’t quite accurate), a disbelieving fan kingdom unwilling to believe it was “the end,” and of course, lots and lots of nasty comments and bad feelings. But that was what would FOLLOW the events in GET BACK. It is NOT what we see on screen, which is in fact an energetic, lively, mostly upbeat look at an intense collaborative period by four of the most famous musicians in history and their handlers, all trying to respond to the immense pressure of gargantuan fame. GET BACK really is a treat, if sometimes a patience-testing experience, that will be richly rewarding for dedicated Beatles fans. You won’t forget it if you watch it with focus and attention. There are scenes that are simply stunning in what they tell us, all these years later. And it’s invaluable as a detailed look at the creative process itself. Sure, it’s a pain to have to find a way to get Disney+ in order to watch this thing. But do it. Really. There has never been a documentary as insightful and surprising, in musical terms, as THE BEATLES: GET BACK. We owe Peter Jackson a debt of gratitude for pulling this off, and let’s be happy for Paul, Ringo and the wives of John and George, for seeing a critical record set straight at last.

UPDATE: Since this review was written, a DVD of the film was scheduled for release in February 2022. Apparently, a few copies managed to make it into the hands of some lucky fans, though once Amazon’s stock was depleted, the Disney Company pulled the package from its schedule and in April announced that the title has been delayed indefinitely due to “authoring challenges.” It now appears that the DVD and Blu-Ray editions will be released, at least in the UK, on July 26. The three-part docuseries is still streaming at Disney+.

DVD/Blu-Ray HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Music Reviews Streaming Video Television | Kevin Renick | |   Allan Klein Billy Preston Blues Rock Brian Epstein British Invasion Music Classic Rock Documentary George Harrison George Martin Glyn Johns John Lennon LET IT BE Linda McCartney Live Music Michael Lindsay-Hogg Movie Music Paul McCartney Peter Jackson Pop Music Psychedelic Rock Ringo Starr Rock and Roll Rooftop Concert Television Series The Beatles THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN Twickenham Studio Yoko Ono

NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE

(PASSION RIVER FILMS/TEXAS TECH PUBLIC MEDIA (62 minutes; Unrated); 2021)

The worst action humanity has proven itself capable of is surely what we call genocide. That’s the systematic destruction of a particular group of people usually by government decree, and it’s generally incomprehensible to most of us. The new documentary NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE doesn’t add that much new to our understanding of this vile policy, but it’s important nonetheless, especially by focusing primarily on two examples outside the “Holocaust,” which we already have countless films about. Here, director Paul Allen Hunton looks at the Khmer Rouge’s horrifying actions in the latter half of the 1970s, and the massacre of mostly children in Burundi in the early ‘80s. Key survivors of each atrocity are interviewed, and it’s hard to believe they are even here to tell their stories. Sichan Siv, a United States ambassador to the UN in the early 2000s and an author whose books include GOLDEN BONES: AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY FROM HELL IN CAMBODIA TO A NEW LIFE IN AMERICA, guides us through a harrowing look back at the “Killing Fields” he escaped from. He lost 15 members of his family, including his mother, in the horror show that commenced after the Vietnam War ended and a bombing campaign in neighboring Cambodia illegally undertaken by Richard Nixon, gave the rebel group known as the Khmer Rouge an excuse to start organizing their plans.

“We were in a situation where you could not really think straight because nobody has ever seen this kind of happening before,” Siv tells us. “Not anywhere in human history. A society that killed their own people!”

NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE (SICHAN SIV) (publicity still)

Through simple but effective animations, and even more effective filming done at Tuol Sleng, the infamous and preserved torture prison in Phnom Penh (complete with countless skulls and photos of the actual prisoners killed there), Siv relates, with remarkable calm, how Pol Pot and his well-trained underlings proceeded to wipe out essentially a third of “Kampuchea’s” then population of eight million people. It’s almost impossible to comprehend unless you have the opportunity to visit the sites in Cambodia where the atrocities happened, something that American student Josh Kiser was able to do.

“When a lot of people think of genocide, they think of NUMBERS, not the thought process behind the killing,” Kiser relates. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 50,000 people or two million people. If it’s the systematic killing of people… for whatever reason, that’s a genocide.”

We get some useful history of how the end of the Vietnam War gave birth to these nightmarish events, and how the Khmer Rouge wanted to form “an agrarian community… to get rid of all the powerful elites and… take things back to ZERO.” Some of the most powerful insights are provided by Doctor Ron Milam, Director of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Texas Tech University. He has studied these matters in depth, and almost matter of factly describes how important it is for the reality of genocide to be taught in schools.

NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE (publicity still)

“It will happen again some place, that’s the point,” Milam says. “We need people to know that it can go this way, that there can be a genocide. Unless you’re taught that, you could fall back into that comfortable way of thinking, that people ‘can’t do this to each other.’ It HAS to be taught. My calculation was always roughly that two percent of the population is psychopathic. Then there are fifteen to twenty percent who are just rascals. They don’t believe in genocide and are not driven by racial hatred. But they see it as a way to make money and be in power. Those people surround the psychopaths and will support them.”

This is obviously tough stuff to watch, and it won’t make viewers comfortable about the state of humanity, especially as we know that smaller genocides are still taking place around the globe. Gilbert Tuhabonye was a popular athlete in Burundi in 1993 when the genocide in neighboring Rwanda (with Hutus targeting their perceived rivals, the Tutsi) spilled over into the smaller country and caused many to be exterminated in cruel ways such as fire, including school children. Tuhabonye himself was tortured and marked for death; he relates that he did NOT think he’d survive, recounting in detail his harrowing escape from murderous pursuers. He is shown at a couple of meetings where he is to speak, being introduced and earning enthusiastic applause, before we learn how lucky he was to even get to this point. And he founded an important entity, the Gazelle Foundation, a non-profit that funds and builds clean water projects in his native Burundi. The sheer hate and determination of groups that are often government-sanctioned (and often the government itself), the underlying reality here, will have you shaking your head. It’s a little too resonant even today, in places like Yemen, Myanmar and parts of Africa. How can humanity hope to understand such a level of hatred?

NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE (GILBERT TUHABONYE) (publicity still)

“One of the things that genocide requires is the dehumanization of a people,” says Aliza Wong, an Associate Dean at Texas Tech University. “There is a… brainwashing that renders the aggressors to be firm in their commitment that their victims are not human.”

Humans killing other humans en masse, and for the flimsiest of excuses at times, has been going on since early in our history. When you can see exhibits on the subject, as with the Holocaust Museum or the evidence preserved at Tuol Sleng, or hear from survivors who lost loved ones, such as the subjects of this film, the effect is sobering. Though Hunton’s film is barely over an hour in length, and arguably could have provided more background, especially in the Burundi segment, it does a good job of zeroing right in on the primary horrors of its subject, and how escape from genocide appears to be an almost random and unlikely thing due to the thorough efforts of the organized killers. That Siv and Tuhabonye are alive to tell their stories is miraculous, and that they can do so in a tone of voice almost like simply having a hard time finding a parking spot at a crowded store, is just unreal. Sure, one moves on from personal trauma, but THAT level of trauma? Let’s hope none of us are ever in the position to find out what it’s like. This documentary is definitely worth the short time it takes to watch it, and though it won’t put you in a great mood, it’s essential that we all know what politics and war can lead to. Some history we definitely do NOT want to repeat.

NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE is available now on DVD and On Demand

HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Streaming Video | Kevin Renick | |   Aliza Wong Burundi Cambodia Digital On Demand Doctor Ron Milam Documentary DVD/Blu-Ray Gazelle Foundation Gilbert Tuhabonye Holocaust Museum Josh Kiser Khmer Rouge Movie Trailer Movies NARRATIVES OF MODERN GENOCIDE Paul Allen Hunton Phnom Penh Pol Pot Rwanda Sichan Siv Streaming Video Texas Tech University The Holocaust Tuol Sleng Unrated Vietnam War

PARADISE COVE

(QUIVER DISTRIBUTION/VOLTAGE PICTURES/CRASHING WAVE PRODUCTIONS/SUNSET PICTURES/THUNDER STUDIOS (144 minutes; Unrated); 2021)

I don’t know, sometimes it’s not that complicated. Despite the fact I’ve been watching more movies than usual in the pandemic era and have in general been predisposed to like most of them, I still require an engaging plot and some kind of cinematic ZIP to push my thumb to the UP position. And the little sucker is resisting efforts to do so when it comes to PARADISE COVE, a new Malibu-set thriller directed by Martin Guigui. The only known star in this thing is Mena Suvari, whom I haven’t seen on screen for a long while. It was good to have a new appearance by her as kind of a guide, and she’s decent here as the restless, aching-to-get-pregnant wife of a guy who just took possession of the shell of his late mother’s beach house in Malibu, which needs – let’s just say – a ton of work. The setting is lovely enough, and our young couple, Knox Bannett (Todd Grinnell) and Tracey (Suvari) are shown admiring the view, playing with their tiny dog, and clinking wine glasses together as they discuss how much they want to have a child and Tracey’s apparent difficulty getting pregnant. Knox doesn’t seem too bothered by anything, and assures his wife that everything’s going to work out fine.

PARADISE COVE (TODD GRINNELL) (publicity still)

It’s a jolt, then, to discover that they have a mysterious squatter living below their abode-in-progress. That would be Bree (Kristen Bauer van Straten), a shifty, wild-eyed woman who looks older than her twenty-something age and is more than well-known to the locals, including a bar maid who telegraphs that something may be amiss with this gal, and to Sheriff Garcia (Ruben Garfias), who sees her mostly as a harmless nuisance. Ah, but Bree is more than just a danger in paradise. She is clearly unhinged, manipulative and not receptive in the least to Knox’s efforts to get her to relocate. A bit of background is provided about a tragedy she endured with a young son, and Knox tries to be sympathetic to her. But she’s not the sort to “work out a deal” with him or anything. And she quickly gets on the bad side of Tracey, too, who hardly wants to set aside her preoccupations with pregnancy and finances to deal with this crazy lady. Sparks are gonna fly, you might say. And sharp knives, hammers and coldly barbed insults are also gonna be utilized. That kinda stuff can definitely impinge on the aesthetic beauty of crashing waves and crying seagulls outside the window. A scene of Bree sneaking into the shower with Knox is downright ludicrous, and it’s sort of where I began losing patience with this film. Although Bree is reasonably attractive, I simply did NOT believe Knox would react as he did in this scene, not after what had already happened. In fact, Knox’s less-than-smart decisions throughout the movie detract from the sympathy he might have earned as the central character. He’s not all that bright, slow at putting the big picture together, and less than a truly reassuring husband for poor Tracey. As an actor, Grinnell LOOKS the part of an in-over-his-head husband, and he fits nicely with Suvari’s mostly plaintive, concerned wife. But he’s missing something in the charisma department, and his performance is simply too low-key in these proceedings. By the time a big confrontation occurs, there has not been enough energy built up to give this “thriller” an actual thrill. You just sort of want to get it over with.

PARADISE COVE (MENA SUVARI, TODD GRINNELL) (publicity still)

I will say that the premise is a reasonably interesting one – the list of movies about deranged homeless females in Malibu is a short one, as far as I know. And Bauer van Straten’s is the notable performance here. She’s a character who is not overtly psychopathic… more someone who gets under your skin by being rude and insensitive, and then starts doing increasingly nasty things without warning until you and your new place are in BIG trouble. The character has some compelling moments, and yeah, she’ll likely creep you out plenty. There’s a bit of “Fatal Attraction-lite” about Bree and her doings here.

PARADISE COVE (KRISTIN BAUER VAN STRATEN, TODD GRINNELL) (publicity still)

But ultimately this movie is somewhat of a tiresome watch, despite the scenic setting. Nobody is genuinely likable, the plot pushes at the limits of credibility a bit too often, and Knox and Tracey, while you basically ROOT for them, are kind of a bland, unromantic couple. The film lacks any big or genuinely impactful scenes that would make you invest more deeply in these characters. And as a so-called “thriller,” there’s a paucity in that regard, also, except for one or two sudden moments. Mena Suvari fans might enjoy seeing her in a sizable role like this, and some may find the film an okay diversion. But my stomach felt empty at the end of the movie and so did my brain. Not exactly “Paradise,” in other words, for my cinema-loving self.

PARADISE COVE is available now On Demand.

HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Streaming Video | Kevin Renick | |   Digital On Demand Kristen Bauer van Straten Martin Guigui Mena Suvari Movie Trailer Movies PARADISE COVE Psychological Thriller Ruben Garfias Streaming Video Thriller Todd Grinnell Unrated