Disc Reviews

When it comes to locations in horror films, insane asylums seem to be one of the go-to spots, and with good reason.  From watching numerous ghost-hunting shows over the years, it would also seem that there are numerous “haunted” asylums out there that are nothing more than rundown relics of what they once were.  So getting into House of Dust and seeing it is yet another haunted asylum film, the expectations went down, and I hoped for the best.  In the end it turned out to be a fun little film.

When we first meet Emma (Inbar Lavi), her family is dropping her off at her new school.  She’s the quiet type who just wants to fit in with the other college students, and it’s not long after her arrival that she catches the attention of Kolt (Steven Grayhm).  The two hit it off at a late night bonfire where the two go off with Kolt’s friends, and they eventually find their way into an abandoned section of the campus that at one time was a facility for mental patients.  Of course there is an urban legend attached to the location, but thankfully the film avoids following the local stories and goes its own path when Kolt and his friends have ashes spilled on them while they are investigating the location.

American Jesus is an intelligent film. It does not judge. It is balanced in its approach to some basic questions. It shows many sides to a very large and ill-defined subject. It attempts to understand in a comprehensive way Christianity in America. Right from the beginning it uncovers unique splinter churches that are part of why America approaches religion differently than other countries. It visits the Cowboy Church in Amarillo, Vintage Faith for surfers in Santa Cruz, Bikers for Christ in Middletown , N.Y., and Team Impact for body builders in Crosby, Texas. This leads into Mara Einstein talking about her book Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Modern Age. It is about the competitive nature of religion in America. There is no state religion, so it has always allowed people to follow there own inner callings.

This film tries to show a very broad cross section of the wide variety that has resulted. The most successful are the mega-churches which can have over 10,000 people at a service. Something like that only becomes successful if they create enormous excitement with rock bands and video screens and TV. On the other extreme, you have small grassroots churches that have members dancing with torches burning their skin and snakes biting them. One such church is in Matoaka, West Virginia, the Full Gospel Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus, run by Pastor Mack Wolford. Wolford is interviewed and explains it is in the hands of the Lord what happens. A caption reveals that Wolford died in 2012 from a snakebite at age 44.

Shelter Island is not a movie about the place but about two people who made a connection. Jimmy Olinkiewicz found Harold Olson one day, and a unique friendship was born. Jimmy is a very basic hardworking guy with a Long Island accent who does anything and everything, and he sees some potential in Harold. Harold is obsessed with painting and will frequently listen to one song hundreds of times for 48 hours straight until he finishes a painting. Jimmy seems like a very normal, average guy, and Harold does not seem very normal. But what is normal? And what is art? Is what Harold does great art? Is art important? Is Harold important? These are the kinds of questions that come up when watching this unpretentious little film.

Jimmy and Harold are two very unpretentious guys. Jimmy is just an average guy who runs a gas station and a construction business and an antique collectables business, all while taking care of his son who has autism. My Mind, a short film by Alex Olinkiewicz about his problems with Asperger's syndrome is included in the DVD and has generated 1,300,000 hits on YouTube. Probably some of Jimmy's compassion comes from Jimmy wanting to help someone like his son but much later in life. Jimmy is 16 and Harold is probably in his 50's, but who knows. Harold probably is autistic and a savant of some type. Harold bicycles everywhere, lifts weights and eats sparingly, which is probably why he is bone-thin. Harold is clearly hyperactive. He also sees things in his dreams that are translated into his paintings. Harold has no knowledge or training about art but clearly has natural talent. Harold doesn't know why he does what he does except to try to please people. Jimmy collects all kinds of junk and sells it on EBay. Some times Jimmy gets huge returns. Maybe Jimmy is hoping for huge returns on Harold. Jimmy with his boundless energy and good will enlists a successful artist near by.

Erle Stanley Gardner wrote crime fiction, and while many of his 100 or so works are unknown to most of us, he created a character who has become as identified with criminal lawyers as any other in fiction. It was in these crime novels that Perry Mason first faced a courtroom. He developed a style where he would investigate these terrible crimes his clients were on trial for. He would find the real killer, and in what has become a Hollywood cliché, reveal his findings in a crucial moment during the trial. While we may not remember the novels, we all remember the man in the persona of Raymond Burr.  Burr had a commanding presence on our screens and enjoyed a well-deserved 11-year run as the clever lawyer. What makes this run so amazing is that the show followed pretty much the same pattern the entire time. We always know what’s going to happen, but we wait eagerly for that gotcha moment when Perry faces the witness on the stand. We know when he’s got the guy squarely in his sights, and we can’t sit still waiting for him to pull the trigger. OK, so maybe that’s a little over the top, but so was Perry Mason. From the moment you heard that distinctive theme, the stage was set. To say that Perry Mason defined the lawyer show for decades would be an understatement. Folks like Matlock and shows like The Practice are strikingly similar to Perry Mason.

Perry Mason officially ended in May of 1966, but that wasn't going to be the end. Twenty years later the surviving cast members reunited for Perry Mason Returns. It was Perry and Della back together again. Both Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale returned to their roles. William Hopper had died in 1970, so William Katt joined the reunion as Paul Drake, Jr. Katt might not have really been Drake's son; he was Hale's son. When Katt left the films he was replaced by William R. Moses as Ken Malansky. Ken was a young law student helped by Perry once when he was framed in law school for a rival's murder. He ends up being both a legal assistant and investigator for Perry in the reunion films. Ken's girlfriend is Amy, played by Baywatch's Alexandra Hastings. Amy was a rich girl who had too much time on her hands. It led to her involving herself in Ken's investigations. The films also often starred James McEachin as Lt. Brock, the cop on many of the cases.  M*A*S*H's David Ogden Stiers would often play his rival in the prosecutor's office Michael Reston. The team would continue to do 30 television movies from 1985-1995. CBS has now begun to package these reunion films in collections like this. You get six films on three discs. The discs appear in a plastic case, and the cases are held by a cardboard slipcase.

When it comes to revenge, Hollywood has exploited the theme in just about every conceivable way.   It’s a genre that has been done so much that it’s hard to find a fresh hook to bring the audiences in, much less create a story that will motivate the audience to root for this blood thirsty protagonist.  Getting the audience on your side as your hero hunts down individuals for retribution is asking a lot, but still there is always going to be an audience that will fill theater seats.

As for how Piggy fares in the lexicon of revenge films, unfortunately this was a film that seemed to be doomed from the start.  I had caught a trailer for the film, and for the most part it left me at least optimistic about the possibilities.