Rating: ***.5 (three point five out of five)
Year: 1977

Plot: Successful-enough actress overcomes super-depressing life event and decides to thrust her upturned chin straight into a new apartment in old-timey New York City. It is suspiciously cheap, but, hey, why ask questions? She’s got a lawyer boyfriend who isn’t *quite* as douchey as you’d expect him to be, but he appears wants nothing but the best for her. She has adventures in fashion modeling that bring out the best in future huge stars who were retrospectively surprised to all be in this movie together.

Weird stuff starts happening in her oddly cheap new apartment. After some more very brave attempts at chin-upped-ness, boy goes off on his own to try to fix all the gf’s problems. It doesn’t end well for anyone.

Review: God, I can’t tell you how much I love 70s/80s movies set in NYC! She (the city) is the Audrey Hepburn of her time – nothing is more engaging or lovable. Her (the city’s) existence is an automatic 1 point in my review schedule. The shock factor stuff was unpredictable enough to not really know what was coming next, and the ensemble cast made each new scene exciting. I mean, you had Ava Gardner, Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, Beverly D’Angelo, Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum… this movie was so overflowing with talent that freaking Richard Dryfus had an uncredited role as ‘man in background on sidewalk’. The plot was kinda Rosemary’s Baby meets The Exorcist, which certainly ain’t bad. Some of the effects fell a little flat, and some of the characters were a bit 2D… someone who isn’t a NYC-o-phile might not think the movie was very good, but I enjoyed those 2 hours.

Rating: **.5 (two and a half out of five)
Year: 1920

Plot: In super old movies, it can be tough to follow a plot, but here’s what I was able to follow: A turn of the century town in Germany has the typical goings-on. Guys are mack’n on ladies – carnival comes to town, etc. One of the acts at the carnival is this creepy looking old guy who has a sleepwalker in a coffin. When the sleepwalker wakes up briefly, he can tell the future. It also seems like his boss (Caligari) can make him run around at night and kill people. Not clear why Caligari wants to kill people, but having a zombie commando is a good way to get rid of people for investigating you for sending the zombie commando to kill people. The sleepwalker dies after trying to steal a lady, leaving his boss to go back to his day job as overseer of the local mental institution. The cops keep on his heels though and determine that he’s seeking come ancient knowledge about somnambulism. Eventually their investigation spoils the ending of Shutter Island.

Review: A lot of the same things can be said for this movie as could be said about many other horror movies from the era. It was groundbreaking – years ahead of its time – laying the foundation for most of the movies we watch today. And its kinda boring. While I wouldn’t want to turn off the lights and watch this by myself on Halloween night, its great to watch with friends as its silent nature makes for good MST3K fodder. What really stands out in the film is the set design (apparently the right angle wasn’t discovered in Germany until 1921). The visage of Dr. Caligari is also truly disturbing. The movie is weird enough to keep you guessing the whole time.

Munchy Suggestion: Beet chips.

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