Al's Birthday Review: 8½ (1963)

 Hello everyone - Bob here, back for another birthday review for Al. 

This time, Al's given me 8½ (Otto e mezzo), a film by Federico Fellini.

8½, so named at least partially because the director viewed it as the 8½th film he had directed, is a highly respected film: winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, on the British Film Institute's list of the greatest films of all time, marked as a film to be saved by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and listed as a highly important film by no less than the Vatican itself. 

So, given that pedigree, do I agree that this is a darn good film?

Yes! Yes, I do.

Let's be clear: 8½ is a deeply weird film, obtuse at times, deliberately unclear at times, and filled with confusion. But it's also very, very good. 

So: in keeping with my normal method when I review films I actually think people should probably see, I'm going to try to avoid heavy spoilers (though I would say that the plot of this film is not highly detailed in any case and the focus of why it is a good film has less to do with plot than with mood, tone, feeling, and thematic reflection). 

But, if you want to go into it totally blind and just need an opinion on whether you should see it, you can skip the rest of this review and just go with: yes, you should. Just bear in mind it is in (primarily) Italian, so unless you speak that you'll be watching with subtitles.

Also, to that end - if you need a place to watch it, it's on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/100050134/8-1-2

Now, to actually do a review of this thing.

8½ is fundamentally a film about making a film, and what happens when that gets difficult - when someone starts questioning their vision, their abilities, their very film concept.
It's also a film about life - how one comes to terms with who and what they are, and with who and what the people around them are and are to them. It's about how we work through ideas, both in creative arts and in our own self-concepts.

The film centers on Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a film director planning a sci-fi epic. Guido is, however, stuck. Extremely stuck. Completely unable to make a movie stuck. Which is a problem, because the process of making the movie is continuing despite that stuck-ness. 

Basically, this is a film about writer's block and how incredibly much it sucks. Try as he might, Guido's not only not managing to write for his film, he's unable to make even the slightest decisions about it - unable to decide on actors or actresses, unable to tell any existing actors or actresses the slightest details about their roles, unable to explain details of the production to the crew. 

Meanwhile, Guido's marriage is faltering, in no small part due to him having an affair, and in no small part as well due to him being distant and unable to truly connect with his wife. He's struggling to find an idea, struggling to find love, struggling to connect with anyone or anything, in fact, on anything more than a surface level. 

He's a man who feels he should believe in his idea and pursue it but doesn't know what that idea is. He has passion, it just doesn't have anywhere to go. He fears whether what he has thought of as a temporary pause might in fact be not only the end of his filmmaking career, but a revelation that he had no talent to begin with.

Along the way, he interacts with various people in his life - a friend with a much younger fiancé (said fiancé is deeply, wonderfully weird in an intense way), the members of his film and production crew, the woman he's having an affair with, his wife, his wife's friends, the memory of his father, his mother, Catholic priests, even flashbacks to his life as a boy in Catholic school and his encounter with a woman on a beach. 

Through it all, he also has visions of his ideal woman, Claudia, who he continually hopes will join his film despite his uncertainty about what that film is going to be and whether he can even make it.

One of the interesting things with 8½ is that it's not always easy to say what actually happens in the film, and what is in Guido's head. Reality and vision blend together for him, and in many scenes intrude upon each other, sometimes clearly, sometimes less so. 

The film's goal is less to tell you the story of Guido's troubles, and more to show you Guido's mental state - his deep confusion and disorder. To that end, dialogue and scenes can sometimes become deeply strange as it becomes deliberately unclear whether what a character is saying is actually what a character is saying, or what Guido perceives them as saying.

Some events clearly happen, while others are clearly Guido just picturing or daydreaming about what might occur.
Some events exist in a kind of dreamlike middle between those two, where something like them could be occurring but probably not exactly as shown.
Still other scenes blend into each other rather than having a solid break - often, there will be a point where something incongruous happens towards the end of a scene which turns out to lead into the next that's taking place at a different place and time entirely (especially when that next scene is going to be one that's more in Guido's headspace than in reality).

It's very effective at showing you the point of view of a man who is trapped in confusion and uncertainty. It's not quite an unreliable narrator film - for the most part, you're getting a real depiction of enough of the story to catch what's actually going on - but the point of view is definitely skewed and warped by Guido's distress and perplexity.

It could make it hard to connect with the film regardless were it not for one thing: the cast is really, really good. Marcello Mastroianni as Guido is excellent, coming off as charming and likeable despite his many, many flaws and his lack of ability to connect. The film is part comedy and in large part that works because Mastroianni is very good at quick banter, excellent expressions, and some very nice instances of physical comedy that hits just the right notes without going over the top. He plays Guido as an exhausted man who is overcome by his own ambition and his own mistakes, and is just trying to muddle through, unable to figure out a way to move forward but also unable to figure out a way to stop. 

Everyone in the film is great, in fact. Anouk Aimée as Guido's wife Luisa puts on a powerful, complex performance as a woman trying to give her husband another chance, as well as the versions of Luisa that exist purely within Guido's head. Sandra Milo as Carla, Guido's lover, is lively, vibrant, and often bizarre, simultaneously shallow and not at all shallow, and a person with a strange sort of view on relationships as she constantly speaks of how much she loves her husband to the person she is cheating having an affair with. Barbara Steele is an absolute scene stealer as Gloria, the aforementioned intense fiancé of Guido's friend Mario (Mario Pisu) - she plays the role as off-kilter, erratic, and often just weirdly off in fascinating ways. Claudia Cardinale plays Claudia, the woman Guido wishes to cast in his film, and plays both Guido's repeated visions of Claudia and what is at least most likely the real Claudia late film. All these performances, and others (some production crew members play fictional versions of themselves and are among the best and most affecting performances in the film in scenes where they confront Guido about their inability to help him make his film when he can't tell them what to do), are engrossing and easy to connect with despite the film itself being intentionally disjointed, distant, and focused on themes of disconnection, confusion, and distress.

I do feel the film has its flaws. Most notably, it sets up some interesting subplots that don't really go anywhere, most notably Mario and Gloria, who take up a lot of screen time and are interesting and fun to watch but don't really have a plot so much as just...be there as kind of a reflection of Guido's own marital situation and struggles with relationships.

 They serve well in their role in the film but they are also interesting enough that I kind of wanted to see more of what happens with them, and the film sets up a question of whether Gloria truly loves Mario or is just after his money and then never really progresses with that in meaningful fashion. (Mario's interesting take at one point: she's probably after my money, but there's lots of younger rich guys around she could've picked instead, but she chose me, and I'm choosing to find meaning in that.) 

There's also some extended sequences with an actress who is desperate to find out what her role is, and while obviously that's there to show the effects that Guido is having on everyone making his film by being unable to explain it, the actress herself was an interesting character who it would've been neat to see develop some more beyond just being a symbol of a problem.

But again, telling the story is less the point than showing the mental state, so it's understandable that the film doesn't really focus on telling its subplots. Guido is the focus, and other characters matter mostly in how they relate to his life situation, work situation, and mental state. 

We are allowed to have glimpses of these people as they relate to Guido, not of the parts of their lives that have nothing to do with him. So, I recognize that this is an intentional effect - even so, there were characters I simply would have loved to connect with more. It just isn't that kind of film.

I also feel the film simultaneously nails its ending, goes too direct with its ending, and goes too vague with its ending, which I recognize is a statement that maybe...shouldn't be possible? 

Hopefully without spoiling too much, the ending forces a confrontation between Guido's inability to decide and direct and the needs of the film, pushes him to his breaking point, reaches a false ending via Guido's misperceptions, and resolves in a pleasant way. As part of that, though, a character makes a statement about Guido's intent that maybe is a bit too direct for a film that has largely been content to let its audience draw its own conclusions thus far, but the ending also still seems part dream and part reality, making the audience decide what is actually happening. I would say it comes off as satisfying but not entirely clear. It gives an answer to the questions of the film - it doesn't just leave you saying, "huh?" - but that answer is simultaneously blunt and vague in different ways. Not so blunt as to be ruinous, however, and not so vague as to be unsatisfying - it all fits with the tone of the film, and there's a sentimentality to it that gives it connection. 

And, again...what matters to this film is less what happens and more what is going on in the mind of its main character when things happen, and in that, the ending succeeds beautifully at showing a resolution to the conflict that has tormented Guido throughout.

As a fascinating factoid, incidentally - it's reported that this ending sequence is in fact based on something that happened to the actual director of 8½ while making 8½ itself. Fellini himself had difficulties deciding on the details of 8½, and was forced into a confrontation with his own doubts, fears, and uncertainties in much the same way as it happens in the penultimate scene of 8½ itself. 

It was there that he realized that he wished to make a film about that very uncertainty, and the film began to fall into place. You can see that in the film itself quite well - 8½ is, in many ways, a film about making 8½ itself, and at many points references its own production.

I'm going to leave it there, as honestly I think 8½ is better watched without overpreparation. It's better to go in with less information than with more, so you can experience the film rather than looking for things I've mentioned or commented on. 

I'll just also mention that I found the use of language in the film utterly fascinating at times - there are a few scenes that are conducted in multiple languages - Italian, English, and I believe French at times - and they work quite smoothly while also nicely adding to the feeling of disorientation the film promotes. 

Another interesting factor: even in Italian, the speech looks obviously dubbed at times. From what I understand, that's because it was: it was the practice at the time in Italian cinema to dub the lines in post-production, and Fellini himself liked to often have the actors just say random lines on set during filming and to write the final lines in post-production and have them dubbed in then. 

So, often, the actors and actresses don't seem to be saying what it looks like they're saying because they aren't. 

Overall - 8½ is interesting, unusual, and well worth a watch. It is a deeply artistic film, but an entertaining one at the same time - the two are, unfortunately, sometimes separate concepts and 8½ proves they do not have to be separate at all. 

It is weird, sometimes questioning, filled with its own doubts and with the flaws of its main character, but at the same time, it is just a good watch, and a deeply fascinating treatise on the creative process itself.

Technically, there's a Sequel too.

Happy Birthday, Al, and thanks for an actual good film this year.

Immediate Response: Supergirl (2026)

 I had a busy week (or so) and couldn't get to this one until today.

It's time to watch...

The Good

* The Film has a very unique vibe, taking predominantly in Outer Space and involving lots of various Alien Races. 
It's like the Lobby Scene in every Men in Black Film, but many times in 1 Film.
* This Supergirl feels unique.  She has experienced trauma and is escaping it until fate makes her act.

* The Brigands are good enemies, with their Ravager-like attire and being easily hated.  Their Leader is just a mean, mean dude.
* The way we learn Supergirl's background and how it plays out is well done.

* Lobo is a fun distraction and does add lots to the Story.
* The Character Arcs across the board are well done.

The Bad

* Because the extent of her Origin is revealed later, early response to Supergirl and her antics might be taken the wrong way.
* I would have loved to see her in the suit before the Finale.

* Hopefully more of these cosmic adventures can include some form of the Green Lantern Corps.  I'd settle for just G'Nort.
* Some people are calling some of Supergirl's actions as 'controversial.'  I don't see it, but that's just me.

Nothing is bad as this picture I found on Google though.

A Film that manages to do its own thing- whether it works for you or not.  Here's to more creativity and more of Milly as Supergirl.

Tubi Thursday: Day the World Ended (1955)

 As a reminder, last week's Film was a confusingly titled Remake of this Film.

I thought 'You either watch this now or never,' so it's a case of Deja Vu here with...

This original film gives us a few glimpses of the other survivors as they seek shelter and THEN the House with the Father and Daughter.

Richard Denning- aka the blond jerk from Creature from the Black Lagoon- is our Lead here as the good Brother.

Like last time, the duo are mourning the apparent loss of her offscreen and only in a picture fiancee with the residency goes from 2 people to 7!

At least this Dad doesn't look like her Grandpa instead.

The group gathers and the Dad explains that they must ration food to survive until the radiation goes away.

So... several years then?

In this one, he explains via a map why the area is safe, but in the Remake he brought out a diorama (that I guess he made in his spare time).

Both also likely inspired by the Plot of '70s YA Novel Z for Zachariah (and its odd Film adaptation)

Weeks pass by means of the dialog simply telling us that they did.  I guess nothing of note happened, eh?

The Brother- who should have died from the rads- is mutating and this reminds the Dad of Animals he saw mutated via the H-Bomb.

Both versions feature a description of a monkey's skin turning into metal and never showing it.  Boo!

The Brother keeps wandering off (Scenes mostly omitted) and killing game in the area...but so does a barely seen creature!

The Cast dwindles as personal conflicts and tragedy (like the death of a Donkey named Diablo) lead to their deaths.

The Jerk Guy is just as bad here AND he looks like he was auditioning to be Sean Connery's Stunt Double (several years too early).

Eventually, the main creature- they only state that there is one here and not many- kills another mutated guy and then the Brother.

He was at Stage 1 of the change and this fella was at Stage 3 (of 3?)

It finally all comes to a head as the Creature fulfills the quote by carrying the unconscious lady (as regular Suit Designer/Performer Paul Blaisdell did a few times).

Our Hero saves her and hides in the Lake at her suggestion.
The pure water is poison to the creature and the rain kills him.

Dad kills the Jerk Guy and then dies from radiation poisoning (he seemed fine a minute earlier) and the duo walk out into the new world.

The Beginning.

It's like buying one of those dollar store burgers you heat up vs. going to a good (but not great) restaurant for a real burger.

The basics are all the same.

The Plot- even in that Remake- had potential.  

This one does slightly more with it, at least.  It made you feel for the Leads and even the less than pristine Ruby.
The Jerk Guy is still a jerk and our Hero is still pretty milquetoast though.

The Film was not a huge budget affair (about $96,000) and shot quickly (10 days), but looks and feels more expensive than the Remake.

The Creature is a fun oddity too.  Blaisdell didn't realize that the suit was porous btw, so he nearly drowned in his own creation!

Day the World Ended doesn't break the mold or define the Genre, but it is good for fans of the pulp stuff and is notable for being Corman's first Sci-Fi Film.

The original is far better than the Remake.  Thankfully for my sanity, it was a generally decent to good Film all around for its time.

Forgotten TV: The Outer Limits - 'Free Spirit'

 We've finally reached Lucky #10 on the list.

This time, we get the tale of an experiment gone wrong and revenge served very cold.

This is 'Free Spirit'

I couldn't find a Title Card.  Sorry.

A Science Experiment is taking place involving near comatose people being allowed to have their spirits leave their bodies.

What could possibly go wrong?

The Funding got caught.  DOGE strikes again!

They are told to stop the experiments and to turn off life support for the Subjects...only one of them was successfully projecting himself when his body died.

He watched it pass away and...left...

4 years later, a Mental Asylum (with only one Establishing Shot) is facing down Day 5 of a blizzard and they are locked in.

It turns out that 2 of the Experimenters were now working there, including Dina 'Birds of Prey' Meyer.

Things get worse when an unexplained spree killer shows up, says something strange and dies!

She starts seeing and hearing weird things, including literal words appearing on the wall (and then vanishing).

Even the presence of Colin 'Eureka' Ferguson can make her relax.

As people act sporadically strange and they lose power, her Boss- who was also an Experimenter- tells her to chill the hell out.

Things get so bad that even the Guard obsessed with voodoo can help.
This is kind of a weird story, eh?

Meyer finds all but Ferguson did and then he reveals that he's controlled by the Free Spirit, the guy who they thought was dead.
He'd been killing the others- hence the spree killing earlier- and now she's next.

The other shoe drops when he reveals that he possessed HER to kill the others and now she will rot in jail while he watches on.

The (bitter) End.

A strong(ish) Episode with a pretty dark Ending.

I guess I've been lucky to *mostly* get the good Endings so far in my journey.  Even the dark ones have a tinge of hope or happiness.

Not this one.  Punished until death.  Yikes.

This one reminds me a bit of Fallen, what with an evil person possessing bodies temporarily to ultimate get revenge.  
Is it a coincidence?  Maybe.

This one is the only Episode that was Written by Danny McBride. 
No, not that one.  The guy who co-Wrote Underworld.

As a one-off that feels like a riff on an EC Comics Story, I enjoyed it.  They definitely cut some corners- like the constant reuse of the Establishing Shot- and the rushed Ending.

Even so, it's definitely better than a few Episodes I've covered.  Now, if you'll excuse me, it's bath time...

Next time, let me turn this Review Series on its head by covering the Top Ten Highest Rated Episodes.  First up, Season 2 began, it seems, with the best Episode ever!

DTV Trash?: Superman- Braniac Attacks

DC had a great run as the Studio making the best Animated Shows in the '90s.
Inevitably, the Shows had to end and Direct to Video Features followed.

Some are confusing (like Mystery of the Batwoman), some are good (like Subzero) and some hurt us all on a deeper level (like Batman & Harley Quinn).

This one- 2006's Superman- Brainiac Attacks has eluded me for a while.

Which category does this fall into?

To find out, read on...

As a foreword, this is actually NOT a follow-up to the DCAU (Batman to Justice League Unlimited). 

It's just an Animated Film made in 2006- the same year as Superman Returns- that uses the same art assets and half of the OG Voice Cast of the Superman Cartoon.

That's only a lot confusing.

Anyhow, as the Title states, Brainiac attacks!  This looks like a job for, well, you know...

Brainiac hijacks Luthor's anti-meteor satellite (which failed to stop his arrival) to blast the crap out of Superman.

This gives Luthor- voiced here by Powers Boothe channeling Gene Hackman- an idea or two. 

Superman finally wrecks Brainiac's body by freezing it and making it shatter.

That's not usually how this works, but I'll accept it.

Cool shot- no pun intended.

Luthor pockets Brainiac's brain chip from the debris and takes him back to LexCorp.

He makes a deal- he'll give Brainiac a new body with some new tech (including the one piece of kryptonite he has) if he destroys Superman.

In the Cartoons, they were literally fused into one Cronenbergian body.  This is safer.

This new body is formed from the Satellite itself and...now he has arms and legs?

The Satellite had those already or...I'm probably overthinking a Cartoon, aren't I?

Using Luthor's tech, it can track Superman and attacks him while he's out with Lois as Clark.

A fight ensues, but it eventually blasts Superman and Lois with some sort of kryptonite wave beam.

This poisons them both, because...why not?

Superman finds no help in his Fortress of Solitude and Brainiac attacks again.

He blows up the place and vanishes into The Phantom Zone, where the secret lies.

Seen here flying inside the mind of Hunter S. Thompson

While he's in there, Luthor reveals to Mercy that he has a failsafe to destroy Brainiac's body.

He positions himself as a hero to stop Brainiac...who took out the failsafe, because, you know, he's Brainiac.

Things go poorly for him until Superman returns (not that one).

Superman is covered in an orange glow and now resistant to the Kryptonite beams.

He eventually overpowers and overcharges Brainiac for the victory.

One final attack makes Superman have to use up the orange energy to save Lois.

In the aftermath, a cocky Luthor soon is hoisted by his own petard!

Oh and Superman doesn't stop being Clark.  Cool.

A decent to good Animated Film that does take some adjustments to enjoy.

As noted, this is just a completely separate entity from Superman: The Animated Series, despite using their Character Models, Locations and half of the Voice Cast.

I was distracted quite a bit at first by the new voices- Boothe as Luthor and Lance Henriksen as Brainiac- while others- like Tara Strong as Mercy- were fine.

Boothe- who was great as Gorilla Grodd- plays a campier and sillier Luthor here that I eventually warmed up to.  There's no wrong version of the Character- well, other than Jesse Eisenberg- but seeing the face I know with a different voice was weird.

Henriksen was fine, if unremarkable as Brainiac.  Corey Burton brought a subtle menace that Lance simply didn't.

Canon and Voice issues aside, this one was alright.  It took some big swings in the story and some of them paid off.

A prolonged part where Jimmy Olsen is beaten up- weird.  
Other swings were countered by simply being undone abruptly (the Fortress will be rebuilt and Clark stays). 
If you're not canon, why not stick to these?

Ultimately, this one kind of falls in the middle with these Adaptations/Follow-Ups.  It's just alright and I can see why it isn't talked about much.

Sorry, new Lex.  I did grow to like you.

Next time, I dig into my digital vault to cover a Sequel that is very much forgotten.  Before he made billion-dollar Films, James Cameron went fishing.  Stay tuned...

Shudder Day: Tales from the Crypt- 'Collection Completed'

 37 years (and one day) ago, the 5th and final Episode of Season 1 aired.

Yes, the Season was only 5 Episodes.
I don't know why.

With a big name as the Lead, let's check out the Episode known as...

It is a big day!

A hard-working man is retiring after 47 years and his Wife threw him a party!

However, the guy- who I'm sure that you'll recognize- is a grump and never realized how much his Wife (of many Decades) loved animals.

I guess he was oblivious all of the time between working 6 days a week.

He can't adjust to life at home due to minor slights like sitting on a cat toy or accidentally being fed tuna cat food and not normal tuna!

He can't stand the animals.

Not one bit!

He takes it out on the poor plants in the backyard, while his Wife loves every animal that could come by.

He hides in his basement for about 2 weeks working on his 'new hobby.'

As it turns out, he's decided to take up Taxidermy- starting with every animal in and around the House!

He's down to the final pet- a cat named Mew Mew- now.

She grabs the golden hammer he got as a retirement gift (Chekhov's Hammer) and kills him with it.

Later, the nosy Neighbor shows up and sees that she's Taxidermized him!
The End!

A simple, but quirky tale of insanity.

This one walks the line between being funny and dramatic.  It was co-written by SNL alum A. Whitney Brown, so that makes sense.

The tale is simple enough.  The man never spent enough time at home and awake to see how the Wife really was.
Either he had to learn to live with it or find a way to change things.

Needless to say, his choice was the wrong one!

All of these Tales are based on EC Comics, but this one does remind me of a *different* one about a clean, organized General and his new Wife.

The guy was Terry-Thomas, but he met a similar fate.

See 'The Vault of Horror' for more details.

A quirky little tale about suburban insanity.  The Actors really make the simple narrative get more weight in its shortened runtime.

Forgotten TV: The Outer Limits - 'Descent'

 As we work our way down the Bottom 10 Rated Episodes, do things get better...or weirder.

This is a Season 5 Episode with a notable 'That Guy' in it.
Does the Plot accidentally touch on some modern ideas?

Let's go ahead and take the...

In the Cold Open, we see these Quest For Fire-looking guys fighting over food.

We then see that a Doctor is imagining the Scene entirely while staring at a Display on Primitive Man.

The Doctor- a famous That Guy named Leland Orser- is experimenting with DNA and trying to create the Dominant and Submissive genes.

With a potion, he can- in theory- make someone more of either.

As you can probably guess, he doesn't take the Submissive formula.

He's already got too much of that, he thinks.

The first dose makes him more confident and more assertive.

It's not enough, however, and he takes a second dose.

That one makes him very aggressive, to the point where he attacks his Boss like it is the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey!

He also gives the female Doctor he's obsessed with a dose of the Submissive stuff when the Office is just all getting flu shots- as you do.

The combination doesn't work, however, and he regrets what he did by trying to force himself on her.

She agrees to help him, making an antidote while he regresses.

Unfortunately, he can't accept a normal life without her and gives himself ALL of the formula he had left over.

After being shot by Security, we see his final fate..

He's now on Display in place of the mannequins!
The End.

A fairly simple Episode, but a pretty effective one.

As a reminder, these kinds of Shows tend to be little Morality Plays.
This is definitely one of those.

Poor Leland learns that power comes at a cost.  At first, he's willing to pay it.
Eventually, he sees the error of his ways...right?

This one has a pretty tight focus, only giving us Leland, the Lady, a Male Coworker and a Boss to focus on.  It helps make this easy to follow.

While it is somewhat of a universal idea- see those old Ads about He-Men on the Beach-, this one does feel a bit topical with the Tates and others doing their things online about being 'real men' or being 'man enough.'

While it is Sci-Fi (and replayed on said Channel), it's a good lesson in going too far for the wrong reasons.
Take us away, reused Newspaper Prop!

Next up, we get to lucky #10 on the lowest rated Episodes.  In this one, crazy people under care may not end up being the ones who are truly insane!  See you then...