Hammer to Nail Review: Mr. K

After over two decades of directing Dutch film and television, Tallulah Hazekamp Schwab makes her English language feature film debut with the surreal black comedy, Mr. K. Veteran eccentric Crispin Glover is perfect for the role of a traveling magician who is experiencing some existential career stagnation. On his way to a gig, he stops in an unfamiliar town, checking into a strange bucolic hotel. The next morning, he’s surprised and frustrated to learn that he cannot find the exit. None of the other inhabitants are much help. In fact, some seem downright determined to mislead him. Others insist that he must accept his new reality, as they have. Bit by bit, Mr. K uncovers the mystery of the hotel’s true nature that could be the answer to, not only his liberation, but life, the universe, and everything.

I won’t reveal too much of the plot because it’s best to experience the narrative along with Mr. K having no idea what is happening or about to happen. However, to give you a sense of the vibes, here are some films that sprang to mind while watching: Alice in Wonderland, Barton Fink, Snowpiercer, Time Bandits, Coraline, Delicatessen, and The Matrix. For a long time, Mr. K resists his absurd predicament as he tries to make sense of it. It’s not until he lets go of his drive to control his circumstances that he is able to move forward. This is also the best way to take in Schwab’s film. To walk away, as they say, you must leave something behind.

Schwab also wrote the script, which she deems her most personal work to date. She was inspired by her fascination with “doors and the idea that they conceal something unexpected.” Schwab wears her influences on her sleeve, as her title character evokes the Kafkaesque landscape that he must traverse. Growing up, she felt like she had trouble grasping the “rules” of society, because they seemed so dependent on where she was and who was imparting them to her. A principal conceit of the film is the idea that one person’s reality can be completely incomprehensible to someone else…

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October 31, 2025
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Hammer to Nail Review: I Don’t Understand You

Watching I Don’t Understand You, the new semi-autobiographical comedy/thriller co-written and directed by real-life married couple Brian Crano and David Joseph Craig, I was reminded of my own “imminent parenthood” time. There is a certain panic that sets in when it’s definitely happening but you’re not sure you’re ready. In the case of I Don’t Understand You, it goes off the rails in very broad ways, but the vibes are inherently relatable. The dark comedy stars Nick Kroll (TVs Kroll Show, Big Mouth) and Andrew Rannells (TVs Big Mouth, Girls) as the Craig and Crano proxies, who embark on a wedding anniversary/babymoon to Italy on the cusp of their impending fatherhood.

Crano and Craig’s debut is, in many ways, a tribute/throwback to outrageous comedies about couples who see their relationship tested beyond their wildest imaginations. Films like, The Money Pit, Date Night, and Flirting with Disaster spring to mind. There’s also a top note of misunderstanding-based violence, like in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. I won’t spoil the journey, but viewers should be prepared. for. anything.

We first meet Dom and Cole as they record and then re-record an introduction video to send to their prospective surrogate (played sparingly and virtually by Amanda Seyfried). The men struggle to find the balance between being themselves and making a good impression. But no matter what, they don’t want to get burned again (their previous surrogate wasn’t even pregnant and made off with a large sum of money). Plus, they REALLY want to become parents.

Craig and Crano really were scammed by a would-be surrogate, got stranded in the Italian countryside, and had to make their way through the crisis with only the most basic Italian skills (there are several jokes about the ineffectiveness of Duo Lingo in the film). Dom and Cole can barely communicate with the people tasked to help them, and the cultural differences between Italians and Americans cannot be overstated…

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June 26, 2025
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Hammer to Nail Review: I Know Catherine, The Log Lady

You probably DO know Catherine, the Log Lady. She was an actress for stage and screen, a camera operator for John Cassavetes, and a frequent collaborator with a little auteur you may have heard of called David Lynch. She also played a signature character in Lynch’s seminal TV show, Twin Peaks. The final performance of her career is beautifully captured in the third season of the show, filmed 25 years after season two ended on one of the most infamous cliffhangers of all time. She get shte documentary treatment in Richard Green’s I Know Catherine, the Log Lady.

Sometimes, things fall together so perfectly that it feels pre-ordained. Catherine Coulson got her start in 1960s San Francisco, when she co-founded an acting troupe called The Circus. She met David Lynch working for him behind the camera on his nascent films. Lynch was an audio-visual magician, who assembled an indelible crew to birth what is arguably the most dynamic body of work to grace the large and small screens. Richard Green, who directed this documentary about Catherine’s life, played a character called The Magician in David Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece, Mulholland Dr.

Most know Catherine Coulson as Margaret Lanterman aka “The Log Lady”; a prescient oddball who traversed the cursed town of Twin Peaks, delivering cosmic messages transmitted through an ever-present log that only she could hear. But Coulson was also a very talented stage actor and camera operator, as well as a reliable caretaker for those she loved. Several people interviewed in I Know Catherine mention her penchant for taking in “wounded birds” and “stray dogs.” These birds and dogs were people, and some of them, sadly, were her romantic partners.

Richard Green knew Catherine, and, as a result, became a tertiary figure in Lynch’s social circle. He got the idea for his 2002 documentary, I Don’t Know Jack, at the 1996 memorial for the film’s subject: Eraserhead star Jack Nance. Nance was Catherine Coulson’s first husband, and Catherine was instrumental in corralling David for I Don’t Know Jack. How fitting, then, that Green could bookend the story with I Know Catherine, the Log Lady…

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April 29, 2025
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Hammer to Nail Review: The Becomers

Writer/director Zach Clark (Little Sister, White Reindeer) returns with his fifth feature film, The Becomers– a unique pandemic-era allegory with notes of Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, and The Coneheads.

When an unnamed alien couple (called X and Y in the script) evacuate their dying planet for the refuge of earth, they are separated, and must enact unimaginable horrors to assimilate to their new surroundings and ultimately reunite. Aided by the universal trauma of the 2020 global pandemic, Clark fits a lot of context into a tight ninety-minute story. The result is an impactful, at times grotesque, occasionally comedic, and wholly romantic depiction of what it takes to regain a sense of normalcy and contentment after losing everything you once knew.

Differentiated only by the color of their pupilless, glowing eyes, X and Y utilize a technology invented by their planet’s scientists, to assimilate on Earth. Unfortunately, in involves stealing the body of a human, at the cost of their life. Worse still, the effect is only temporary, resulting in a string of unwitting deaths in the name of their own survival. They just happen to land in the Chicago area during the uncertain, mask-filled, social-bubble era of our recent past. This timing has its advantages and disadvantages.

The plot unfolds organically, with a voiceover (from Russell Mael of the band Sparks) metering out the events that brought the couple into this predicament. The narrator continues revealing the backstory throughout the present narrative. We learn a bit about the culture of their former lives, and this is where the Coneheads comp comes in. It began with a blind date over “squash steak wraps and black drink” before the couple “connected pods” and made a life together. “There were signs of things to come – the news was strange, scary, yet our little lives were as normal as ever.” They describe a rather familiar set of events that result in their own global crisis, and ultimately, a complete planetary evacuation to save their species…

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November 26, 2024
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Hammer to Nail Review: Monica

Despite recent progress (and plenty of setbacks), representational Trans cinema remains a barren landscape. Fortunately, we have an oasis in the form of Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s new film, Monica, starring Trace Lysette. Pallaoro and his writing partner, Orlando Tirado, are no strangers to crafting intimate cinematic portraits of women in crisis. Charlotte Rampling won an acting award at The Venice Film Festival for helming their 2017 film, Hannah. Lysette received Venice Film Festival accolades of her own in 2022, when she became the first out Trans woman to star in a selected film.

Monica follows the titular character, a Trans woman working as a massage therapist in L.A. and in the death throes of a relationship with an unseen jerk called Jimmy. In between leaving voicemails for Jimmy, Monica is shocked to receive a call from Laura, the sister-in-law that she has never met. Laura lives in an unnamed Midwest town, raising 3 kids with Monica’s brother, Paul. It’s the same town Monica fled years before, when her mother kicked her out for being Trans. The mother who drove her away is now dying, but refusing hospital care, and the family needs Monica to lighten the load. We can guess pretty early on that the kind-hearted Laura is also hoping to facilitate a deathbed reconciliation for the family. Monica surprises herself by agreeing to come. She packs up her hot-but-janky convertible and makes the long drive to her trepidatious homecoming.

Monica is a stranger in a familiar town, meeting her sister-in-law and siblings for the first time. She hasn’t seen her little brother since Eugenia (the flawless Patricia Clarkson) told her she couldn’t be her mother anymore. No one in her biological family has ever met her as Monica. Every interaction she has outside the relative safety of Los Angeles is fraught with the prospect of conflict or even violence. So naturally, she proceeds with caution, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. She has learned this survival skill through experience. We don’t need to know specifics and the narrative doesn’t elaborate…

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May 9, 2023
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment