THE NEVERENDING
FILM FESTIVAL
#207  [archive]
NOV. 5, 2023
Reflections of Evil (2002)
Streaming free
A fat psychotic named Bob eats far too much, and never anything healthy. He argues with people on the sidewalk, has a knack for missing his bus, sells watches nobody wants to buy, and gets hassled by cops and attacked by dogs. He lives with his grandmother, who often nags that he’ll die if he doesn’t eat less and drop some weight.

That’s a synopsis, best I can do, but it’s only a start, and everything’s augmented by whatever writer-director-star Damon Packard can add — scraps from 1970s TV, random uncomfortabalia, and sampled snippets on the soundtrack, all clearly in violation of copyright, trademark, and general movie decorum. Everything flickers between fascinating, hilarious, and disgusting,
but even the disgusting parts are fabulous and hilarious. What the film is really about is Packard’s passion for and hatred of mainstream movies and moviemakers, advertising, and anything to do with pop culture. The story’s big payoff was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood, where Bob’s sister died of a PCP overdose years earlier, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg may have been involved.
Tonight I watched the two hour and 18 minute “special edition” of Reflections of Evil, but there’s another version almost an hour shorter. I’ve seen both, and recommend the longer version, for its deeper, more subtle characterization of Bob the Slob. Verdict: BIG YES.♦ ♦ ♦Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
Streaming free

David Warner, younger than you’ve ever seen him, plays Morgan, an artist of no renown who’s wacky, and often daydreams of large primates prancing about, free and hairy as he is. His upper-crest wife Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave) is divorcing him, weary of his overbearing manners, failed magic tricks, and his hammer-and-sickle communism, but… she still kinda likes him. He threatens her new fiancé, repeatedly, wires their house for sound to intrude on any escapades, and places a small bomb under their bed. Morgan has already ‘joked’ that since they’re still married, raping Leonie wouldn’t be rape, so he decides kidnapping her wouldn’t be kidnapping, and steals her away to some island hoping to win back her affections.”Where has love got me? Where has gentleness got me? You know violence has a kind of dignity in a loving man. And I’m full of love.”The setup is dated and implausible, but it was the ’60s, and done right this might’ve been a fluffy slice of a stale time. Warner and Redgrave are game, but the comedy bits bring only slight laughs, with music to exaggerate every punchline, or the film speeds up to further nudge your funny bone.It grows tiresome, and I didn’t make it to the end.
Verdict: NO.♦ ♦ ♦Popeye (1980)

Robert Altman directs. Screenplay by Jules Fieffer. Music and lyrics by Harry Nilsson. Robin Williams stars as Popeye, with Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. And the whole thing is set-designed so marvelously it looks like it was filmed in a fairy tale.But nothing interesting happens. Popeye is looking for his long-lost father. He’s new in town, and every single soul who lives there is a zany character.
Williams captures the arg arg arg voice, and everyone talks like their cartoon characters talked, but Max Fleischer’s cartoons ran six minutes. This is almost two hours — two hours of people talking in weird voices, while nothing interesting happens.
Nilsson’s songs are not his best work, and intentionally sung off-key, presumably because Altman told the cast the songs would be funnier that way.Arg arg arg, it’s all I kin stands, ’cause I kin’t stands it no moah!Verdict: NO.11/5/2023    • • • Coming attractions • • •
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Truck Turner (1974)
Who’s That Girl? (1987) … plus occasional schlock and surprises     • • • And then • • •A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990)
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
The Bat People (1974)
The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
Berkeley in the Sixties (1990)
Brainwaves (1983)
The Card Counter (2021)
Cellular (2004) 
The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985)
Dark Star (1974)
The Day My Parents Became Cool (2009)
The Decline of Western Civilization (1980)
Downsizing (2017)
Frankenhooker (1990)
The General (1926)
Get Shorty (1995)
Hugo (2011)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
The Internet’s Own Boy (2014)
Kids in the Hall (debut episode; 1988) 
Kids in the Hall (reunion debut episode; 2022)
The Killing of America (1981)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) 
Line of Duty (debut episode; 2012)
Love Happy (1950)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Man Who Thought Life (1969)
The Man with Nine Lives (1940)
The Manhattan Project (1996)
Not Wanted (1949)
Nothing But a Man (1964)
Phone Booth (2002)
PickAxe (1999)
Poison (1990)
Revelations (1993)
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)
Romper Stomper (1992)
Room Service (1938)
Same Kind of Different as Me (2017)
Saved! (2004)
Scared to Death (1947)
Secret Weapons (1985)
The Shooting (1966)
The Soloist (2009)
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Taken for a Ride (1996)
The Train (1964)
Welcome to New Orleans (2006)
Who Farted? (2019)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) There
are so many good movies out there — old movies, odd or artsy, foreign
or forgotten movies, or do-it-yourself movies made just for the joy of
making them — that if you only watch whatever’s on Netflix or playing at
the twenty-plex, you’re missing out.To get beyond the ordinary, I recommend:Alter • Cineverse • Criterion • CultCinema Classics • DocsVille • Dust • Fandor • Films for Action • Hoopla • IHaveNoTV • IndieFlix • Internet Archive • Kanopy • KinoCult • Kino Lorber • Korean Classic Film • Christopher R Mihm • Mosfilm • Mubi • National Film Board of Canada • New Yorker Screening Room • Damon Packard • Mark Pirro • PizzaFlix • PopcornFlix • Public Domain Movies • RareFilmm • Scarecrow Video • Shudder • ThoughtMaybe • Timeless Classic Movies • VoleFlix • WatchDocumentaries • or your local library. Some people even access films through shady methods, though of course, that would be wrong.