tomweberfilms Reviews

Loudon Wainwright III: Surviving Twin (2018)

Not Enough Focus On Music

[8/10 · 16 November 2018]

I thought the concept intriguing, and the production values were extremely high. Oddly, the show doesn't feature much of Loudon's extensive catalog of original songs. I thought the focus on his writer father was a great focal point for the first half, but the second half wanders a bit. Too much monologue and not enough music for my taste.

Night Train (1959)

Moody Expressionist Thriller

[9/10 · 29 October 2012]

Although it has superficial similarities with Hitchcock films (it's in black and white; it takes place on a train; it's a murder mystery; there are plenty of red herrings and misleading clues), I loved this moody Polish film because it is visually stunning and refreshingly free of Hollywood clichés. I saw a lot of Expressionist influence in the artfully planned staging and unusual camera angles, both inside the cramped railway corridors and outside the train in various stops along the route. The film is fairly demanding on the viewer: there are a lot of secondary characters with complicated stories of their own, and I found myself repeatedly pausing the DVD to catch details that I had missed. The final scenes were intricately choreographed and highly stylized, reminiscent of black-and-white-era Fellini. Not for everyone, but I found it delightful and plan to watch it again.