Though it has its moments, The Darkest Place is disappointing.  Rich with noir, it fails to deliver, and the villain’s revelation is anticlimactic. Despite this, Judson tells an entertaining tale, but it’s best enjoyed as a whole, and not for its “ironic twist” ending that falls flat.

Deacon Kane is a professor and sometime author drifting on the edge of self-dissolution. Grieving his son’s drowning and his ruined marriage, he’s ensnared in a torrid affair with a married woman, drowning himself in booze, risking both his position and career. When a string of “suicides” emerges in Southampton, Kane finds himself inextricably involved in a Draconian plot that makes no sense, one in which he’s drugged and set up as a suspect.

In an age before political correctness, in 1936 Warner Brothers released The Green Pastures, a movie in which an all black cast play out Bible stories as told in the Deep South. We see white-robed winged angels at a grand fish fry. One still has his cook’s cap still on. They’re waiting for De Lawd, a white-haired and bearded black gentleman in a black frock coat, who smiles and says, “Let the fish fry begin!”

J. Stephen Lang’s The Bible on the Big Screen has many such wonderful details in it. Lang, a prolific author perhaps best known for his Complete Book of Bible Trivia, has compiled a thorough look at films that deal with Bible themes or stories. Running from 1897 to 2007, Lang gives a synopsis, background to the making of the film, and includes a short evaluation without providing an absolute “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”

Damnation Street is a gritty novel superbly blending contemporary themes with traditional pulp fiction.  With crisp narration, it takes readers to a familiar place: the world of noir/crime fiction, but in new ways.  Sporting archetypal characters that are fresh and inventive, this is a crime fiction delight.

Scott Weiss is a private detective with an instinctual sixth sense giving him special insight into human nature. He’s always one step ahead of clients and suspects alike. A Nero Wolfe of the streets, Weiss lives a lonely life – which makes his obsession with runaway prostitute Julie Wyant dangerous. Even though Weiss “knows” it can only end badly, he pushes on in his pursuit anyway.

Note: Every once in a while, Infuzemag.com will provide a second opinion on a noteworthy movie. This time around, Josh and Emily Pardy (or "Team Pardy" as we call 'em around here) have offered their own take on Tim Burton's interpretation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd. Enjoy! -- Ed.

 

The dark, dynamic duo has done it again! Sweeny Todd is the highly anticipated film spawned from the collaborative genius of director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Taking on the macabre musical originally created by Stephen Sondheim, this truly legendary tale takes on a whole new life. Thanks to this re-envisioning of the story, the viewer doesn't have to be familiar with either the Broadway production or the English legend in order to enjoy this adaptation to the silver screen.

The story is simple enough to follow: Sweeny Todd (Depp), formerly the barber Benjamin Barker, has returned to London a wronged man after serving a 15-year sentence for a crime he didn't do. The man responsible, the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), engineered Barker's demise because Turpin craved his beautiful wife. With nothing left to live for, Todd seeks vengeance against Judge Turpin. With the help of poverty-row baker Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), Todd quickly resumes his occupation, enabling him to come razor-close to those he seeks revenge against.

The horror/scary movie genre has seen better times. Hollywood still likes to pop a few out every year, and the draw of the genre remains an argumentative topic. Cheap thrills always score high, whether they're found in amusement parks or captured on celluloid. Once in a while, the genre allows for a terse and sometimes profound examination of deeper matters. But there are few remaining original scares among the current crop, many of which amount to poor remakes billed solely on the gross-out factor. Others, however, have turned toward the assortment of material popular in Japan, like One Missed Call.

As Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon, The Holiday, Dirt) counsels her friend Leann through a recent break-up, an odd ring tone chirps from the Leann's cell phone. "One missed call," the phone's display reads, bearing the next day's date. They listen to the message, and hear the eerie sounds of the Leann's final words just before she dies. The next evening, creeped out by odd visions of bugs and distorted faces, Leann dials Beth, who races to meet her friend and walk her home. But Beth is too late -- and over the phone, she hears the very same events heard on the voicemail from the previous night.

Here's a movie I never thought anyone would make: a biopic about Ian Curtis, the short-lived songwriter and lead singer of one of the most storied bands to come out of the immediate post-punk era, Joy Division. But if anyone were to make that movie, it would have to be Anton Corbijn, the photographer who shot the band (and so many others) for British music weeklies and many other publications.

Control is Corbijn's first film, but it shows the studied eye of an experienced helmsman. That he is so intimate with the subject matter, and relied on someone even more so -- Curtis' wife, Deborah, and her biographical book about her tormented husband and their marriage, Touching from a Distance -- reveals itself, ironically, in the distance that surrounds Curtis (Sam Riley, a gifted newcomer) throughout this film.

If you're still at "who?" at this point, let me explain: Joy Division put Manchester's scene and then-nascent Factory Records on the map. The band released only two studio albums, riding a meteoric rise to stardom in the UK and Europe leading to the inevitable American tour, which never happened. Ian Curtis, the band's epileptic lead singer, killed himself on the evening before the band was scheduled to fly across the Atlantic. Exit Joy Division; enter Joy Division's far-reaching legend, as well as the band that arose from JD's ashes, the far-better-known New Order. (All together now: "Oh!")