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Look Into the Fire (2022)
A Solid Indie Thriller
Look Into The Fire is a well-constructed, taut, lean, and focused psychological drama. As a filmmaker, writer/director Tim Morrill has clearly been influenced by Alfred Hitchock, David Lynch, and Philip K. Dick. While he treads into similar territory as his influences, he never apes them. The cast of mostly unknowns turn in solid performances with Jackie Dallas as Sam, Artie Shase as Adam, and Nina E. Jordan as Janet being standouts. Well-known character actor Gregg Henry gives an enjoyable performance as Professor Hirsch. The music by Mariano Salino and cinematography by Matt Emanuel were both suitably moody without being flashy or calling too much attention to themselves. Joe Jefferson's editing helped drive the story and create a tense pace.
The Day Time Ended (1979)
Somehow Even More Confusing Than When I was a Kid
I first saw this movie on TV as a kid in the early 1980's , probably as a one of those movies the local TV stations played on Saturday afternoon after both cartoons and sports but before the news and prime time TV. I didn't understand it then. Flash forward to 2021. I'm in my 40's. I've directed short films and just directed a play for a local theater company. I'm watching this movie again as part of Netflix's revival of MST3K, I still don't get it but there are jokes. It feels like the screenwriters who wrote this movie got REALLY high one Saturday night, caught a double bill of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the drive-in and decided to write a screenplay. The resulting screenplay must have seemed profound at 3 A. M when they were reading it while stoned on ALL the weed but the resulting movie is a mess. The actors are good sports reacting to sights added in post but the story is barely there and confusing, and the effects are cheap and look like they were done by high school students doing a project for extra credit. Do yourself a favor either smoke two or three bowls of weed before watching this movie or watch the riffed version on MST3K or both.
Battle in Space: The Armada Attacks (2021)
I Hope they Gave Dust a Cut...
If the stories in this uneven anthology seem familiar, it's because you probably already saw them on the YouTube channel called Dust. As standalone short films, the segments range from decent mashups of well-worn tropes to truly heart-breaking . However, clumsily welded together with a barely there frame stor, they're an uneven mess.