Chase_Witherspoon
Essentially a two-person stage play with the fatally unhinged former make-up man Rooney recreating his favourite motion pictures on an old, abandoned sound stage using abducted actress Anders as his muse. The film conveys her attempts to escape, and Rooney's lunacy as he flits between vague coherency and outright mania. Larry Cohen's impressive set design is eye-catching, although the music tempo is at times so frantic as to become irritating. I've read a lot of reviews concerning this movie, and the majority seem to charge it with a contempt normally reserved for those films so pathetic, they even fail on cult status. Sure, it's probably a little too avant garde for the average punter (myself included), and yet, it's strangely compelling with a truly maniacal performance by Rooney. If you'd been accustomed to the Mickey Rooney of the 1940's, then you're in for a shock; his turn is quite raw, maybe somewhat self-indulgent (in showcasing his range), but certainly remarkable.Anders certainly isn't the acting dwarf some have painted, though her dialogue is scarce by comparison, while the once-ubiquitous Keenan Wynn has a brief but memorable cameo, and there are a host of extras that form Rooney's heyday hallucinations (and who look like a theatrical company) - many of them sans costumes in full-frontal glory just to underline the point that Rooney has totally flipped his switch. I almost fell asleep after just ten or so minutes, but persevered and while not a masterpiece, found the overall result intense if at times uneven and probably unfairly maligned as a turkey.
Bloodwank
There's a not insignificant realm of cinema where art unbound roams raging into madness. But less in number are the films that cross into this maelstrom and there not only find meaning but grasp quintessence, and The Manipulator is one of these films. As uncompromising a study of madness as I've ever seen, it tells the story of ageing film-maker BJ Lang and his captive Carlotta who he forces to play Roxanne to his Cyrano in scenes from the Rostand play. The story is barely skeletal, mostly a two handed piece with a short appearance from a wino, its flesh is its dialogue and technique and the two entwine remarkably well, not that you would guess from the average reviewer here, most of whom seem to be hung up on not understanding (nor even attempting to) what they were seeing. Essentially The Manipulator looks at the processes of art in abstraction, removed from their connection to the creation of a cohesive work, and treats them as means of psyche infection, a force that has entirely infested poor BJ Lang, breaking down all the structures that hold him together. In his shadowy and cobwebbed studio he acts the role of director, talks to mannequins as his crew, adopts their voices to talk to himself, plays Cyrano, plays actor, even self aware mad old man. With nothing to hold his notions separate he skips wildly between fiction and reality, artifice and insanity, self knowledge and deceit, even touching on legitimate insights along the way. And in the process slowly but surely a picture of art run to its terrible potential emerges, the manipulations of creating fiction, the manipulations of crafting an actual artwork, these processes of one wielding control over many, we see that complete control, to some the loftiest goal, means the collapse of the individual and rebuilding as collective consciousness, consciousness oh so difficult to hold in any kind of check once developed. It is as you might guess, not exactly an easy film. That it works so well is to a great extent down to Mickey Rooney as BJ Lang, giving an extraordinarily uninhibited performance. Every shade of pathos and mania, even strange grandeur, singing, dancing, physical comedy, there are scarce few other turns in film so free and wild. He is utterly, bizarrely compelling, hateful at times and sympathetic at others, simply superb. Luana Anders does a good job as his foil Carlotta, she mostly has to react, growing steadily more and more desperate and unhinged herself, not quite as showy a turn but still playing very well of Rooney, rather chilling in her plight. Keenan Wynn is good too as a wino, though he has really to do except shifting the plot and sense of reality for a spell. The technique matches the acting in outlandishness, deploying all manner of unbalanced angles, close ups, speedy edits, colored lenses, strobe lighting, hallucinatory sound design, hazy phantasms, all this piled on relentlessly to disturb the viewer as much as the characters on screen. The terrific art direction (by Larry Cohen) goes well with the directorial flourishes too, all manner of mannequins, both whole and in parts alone, free standing or hanging, and an array of beasts as well. And not surprisingly the score is unusual too, ranging from piano and sawing strings to strange noisy burbles. So altogether its a dense film, by the end almost an exhausting one, and most certainly not to all tastes. But for those interested in the intersection of madness and art, of truly bizarre art-house horror or just of unfettered acting exercises this is most certainly a worthy watch. 8/10
Hans-56
This movie actually is a true actor's movie. In true actor movies it is all about the actors. They (or at least one of them) are the only interesting aspects of the movie. Usually the story is written for the actors, the direction only helps the actors to make the most out of it. Everything else is of no real importance.Watching this movie I thought about another actor's movie and a very good one: "Sleuth". Even Rooney doing his make up thing remembers one of Michael Caine doing the same in "Sleuth". And I was very impressed by Rooney's acting in this movie. Actually I think his acting was as good as Caine's in "Sleuth".So it is obvious something went wrong, terribly wrong. I think first of all that horror is never a good genre for an experiment like this. Horror always depends on special effects. And you do not want those in an actor's movie. It's all about the actors, remember? And because it is all about the actors, you do not want any experimental camera-work. There is no need to shake the camera, put weird lenses on it or use it off color. The actors do those tricks and the camera puts their performance on film, that is all. And in this case the story itself stinks. It is a story intended for a sleazy B-movie. And even though Luana Anders performed quite well, her acting was not good enough to confront Mickey Rooney. Unlike the great interaction between Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier.So what we are left with is a stinker. The only thing worth watching is Rooney's acting. But with nothing else to keep you going, this is almost impossible to keep up for more then 30 minutes.
The_Void
Well...from the plot description, you would certainly be forgiven for thinking this one sounds promising, and indeed it does; but what we have here is a very turgid movie that doesn't make good use of any of it's positive elements. The base of the plot is not particularly original as it had been used in previous (and superior) films such as The Collector in 1965 and focuses on a man who takes a girl hostage. In this case he is the insane makeup man B.J. Lang and he keeps the girl in his prop room. Former child star Mickey Rooney takes the lead role and succeeds only in making a fool of himself. The film really lacks direction and the characters' motivations are never really made clear, which often made me question why I was actually watching it. Director Yabo Yablonsky clearly doesn't have a clue and it's not surprising that he didn't direct anything else after this film as his direction adds nothing and he obviously didn't know where to go with his own story and doesn't get the best out of his central performers. Overall, this film certainly doesn't come recommended. See The Collector instead!
