meathookcinema

A runner, Laura, literally drops dead after winning a 200-meter race. Her sister, who is in the Navy, comes to town for the graduation ceremony in which her sister will be honoured. A killer then starts bumping off Laura's teammates. But who is this murderer and what is their motive?

I still can't believe that I hadn't seen Graduation Day until yesterday. I *think* I was getting it mixed up with another school-based slasher movie, Final Exam which I've (unfortunately) seen before.

And what do you know, I was impressed by Graduation Day! It wouldn't have made John Carpenter lose any sleep as this is nowhere near the perfection of Halloween which kicked off the slasher genre, but it's an enjoyable yarn that I enjoyed immensely. It also passed the mobile phone test as I didn't pick up my phone once.

Quirky characters (the early slasher movies fully knew their teenaged demographic and so included plenty of humour rather than just horror), a great cast (Christopher George, Linnea Quigley, Vanna White and there's even the guy who plays Dr Mandrakis in When A Stranger Calls!) and some brutal kills feature here.

I loved some of the frankly absurdist dialogue. An example- Linnea Quigley's character is with her boyfriend in the woods making out (we've seen them enjoying a joint in an earlier scene, so we just know they're going to be slaughtered) when he announces that he has to pee. As he walks away to a nearby bush, she says to him, 'I'm so jealous you're able to just pee anywhere', to which he replies, 'Yeah! The whole world's my toilet!' Which, I guess, it is!

The film's last act is batsh!t crazy even if belief is subsequently stretched to achieve this. But, I don't care about realism in an early 80's slasher movie. Near the end of the film, there is a domino effect of messed up scenes that feels like they will never end and is extremely enjoyable. I love the horror films that go the extra mile when it comes to the bizarre and unhinged.

Whilst Graduation Day didn't win any awards on its release, it does go down in history as being one of the films that was placed on the third DPP List amid the Video Nasties furore. A dubious accolade.

One of the better slasher movies from the early 80's.

1983's Silkwood concerns Karen Silkwood, a plucky trade unionist who works at Kerr-McGee nuclear facility making fuel rods for nuclear reactors. Shes concerned by managers falsifying safety reports, cutting corners and retouching photographs of fuel rods to hide shoddy work and starts to campaign for these concerns to be rectified for the people who work at the plant. She collects evidence regarding her concerns and arranges to meet a New York Times reporter to hand over her evidence so that she can blow the whistle.

I won't spoil the film by saying what happens next. All I'll say is that this scene is heartbreaking, with Karen's rendition of Amazing Grace playing over the soundtrack as events come to a shocking conclusion. This scene will stay with you long after the film has finished.

There's so much to love about Silkwood.

Firstly, the performances are uniformly stunning. Kurt Russell as Karen's boyfriend and Cher (in one of her first dramatic roles) are both fantastic. Cher, playing a lesbian (named Dolly!), was pushing boundaries at the time, and her character never feels like it panders to stereotypes or parody. But it's Meryl Streep as Karen who steals the show. Everything about her portrayal is jaw-droppingly brilliant. Even her body language and how she carries herself are totally different from any other role she's taken on. She was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for her performance, as was Cher and Mike Nicholls for his brilliant direction.

I also love the fact that there's so much character development with the main protagonists. Dolly's new girlfriend moves in (played by Mommie Dearest's Diana Scarwid) and proceeds to completely alienate everyone in the household. When she leaves to go back to her husband and kids, this leads to a huge argument between Dolly and Karen. When they apologise, the scene highlights another brilliant aspect of the film- it's a great sisterhood movie. Silkwood would blow the Bechdel Test to smithereens. It's a beautiful thing to behold. Karen is also battling with her ex-husband to try and gain more time with their kids. All of this drama is worthy of a movie of its own, even if there wasn't the main storyline concerning what's going on at Karen's workplace.

I kept thinking of Paul Schrader's Blue Collar whilst watching Silkwood, with the battles between trade unions and money-hungry managers being highly prevalent and with very deadly results. There are also enough real-life cases to suggest that in certain circumstances, human lives are expendable when money and a company's reputation are at stake. Watch as shadowy figures plant rumours that Karen might be to blame for contamination in the plant or that her campaigning might mean that the plant is closed down and a massive number of people lose their jobs. Then, watch in horror as the more Karen ruffles feathers within the organisation, the more she finds that she is contaminated and privy to the dehumanising body scrubs. It's almost as if...

Jane Fonda was first mooted for the role of Karen, but when this incarnation of the project fell through, it commenced with a new production company and with Streep, who was fresh from working on Sophie's Choice. Silkwood and the other Fonda movie, The China Syndrome, would make a brilliant double-bill.

On doing a Google search on Karen Silkwood, I see that there's renewed interest in her case and what exactly happened to her. The new podcast called Radioactive- The Karen Silkwood Mystery should make for a fantastic listen with long-lost tapes and evidence being unearthed. Let's hope Karen finds justice from beyond the grave.

1983's Silkwood also serves as a fantastic epitaph.

I remember back in the day being shown Boat Trip by a housemate who was also gay. He said that it was a hilarious movie with almost every character being homosexual. I watched the film all the way through out of politeness (something that wouldn't happen now) and thought it was the direct opposite of being a great film centred around 'the gays'. Will my opinion of the film change after watching it more than 20 years later?

The film concerns Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr), who has been jilted by his girlfriend after he took her up in a hot-air balloon to propose to her. Unfortunately, due to being queasy at being up so high, he vomits all over her (the film's only funny gag). His friend suggests they go on a cruise as apparently loads of 'hot babes' go on them. A vindictive travel agent places them on a GAY cruise instead. And so we have the premise of this cinematic opus. Hilarity ensues (!)

The first striking thing about the film is that about 95% of it I didn't remember. Maybe on first viewing, I just zoned out (a skill I learnt in school primarily during triple Physics) or dissociated at the sheer horror of it all. Boat Trip deals primarily with every gay stereotype that was prevalent at the time, with gay men being either crop-top wearing, excitable twinks or in-trim gays in their twenties and thirties, all whitened teeth and no stranger to a solarium or a chest wax. They're also attracted to ALL men, including our two leads (which is utterly laughable). It's depressing that gay people were seen like this in 2002. It's also depressing that some gay people I met on the gay scene joyously fulfilled these stereotypes.

Roger Moore also stars as an older gay man, but even he can't save proceedings.

I don't often agree with Roger Ebert, but this is vapid, boring and utterly forgettable. In fact, it's so lame that even though it trots out every stereotype imaginable, they're delivered so poorly that it derides any kind of offence that should have been generated.

I actually think this film was made as some kind of tax loss that would underperform. It bombed at the box office, and critics despised it also. It was even nominated for Razzies but didn't win, as 2002 was the year that Gigli was released.

This is a film for people who talk during films, move their lips when they read and have an IQ of below 10.

Appalling.

0 out of 5 stars.