Black Mama White Mama (1973) Movie Review

Black Mama White Mama is a 1973 exploitation action movie that belongs to the subgenre of Women In Prison films. Distributed by American International Pictures and produced by John Ashley and Eddie Romero (The Woman Hunt, Savage Sisters), who also directed the film, it was one of several action flicks produced by American filmmakers but shot in the Philippines. Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Caged Heat, Crazy Mama) wrote the original concept for the movie with his partner Joe Viola (Bionic Woman, The Hot Box, T.J. Hooker, Cagney & Lacey) and it was basically a female remake of The Defiant Ones (1958), tackling subjects such as women's liberation, racial tensions and left-wing guerrillas. Eventually, screenwriter H.R. Christian developed the film from there. Nowadays it is considered a fundamental piece on Blaxploitation cinema, low budget genre cinema and Women In Prison cinema.

Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) is a prostitute transported to a tropical women's prison where she meets Karen Brent (Margaret Markov), the girlfriend of a revolutionary guerrilla leader. In the can they suffer the wrath of lesbian authoritarian guards and the harassment of fellow prisoners. There's a certain tension between the two and their clashes made them end up in the hot box as punishment. When Karen's boyfriend, and his rebel soldiers, intercepts a bus transferring the girls to a maximum-security prison, the girls end up on the run chained together. Now they must fight to survive as the authorities and a gang hired by the army to hunt them are on their tail.

A surprisingly thoughtful and precise exploration of the sociopolitical climate, the film uses the metaphor of "chained together by the man" to its full exploitation and narrative potential. The sordid thrills one can expect are here but they don't degrade the film as they add to the filthy environment and the overall analogy of oppression and abuse but in a playful and entertaining way that helps to explore these ideas. A good marriage of an outrageous tone that's well handled to be sober and focused on its development.

Some supporting actors also add to the film, an example is the joyful Sid Haig with his humorous but fitting attitude and demeanor. Pam Grier plays a very grounded character that gets rid of any type of stereotype or exaggeration, not unlike her usual roles but slightly more rough and grungy. Markovis also does a serviceable job as the white girl.

The sleaze factor isn't as increased as in some of the other Women In Prison movies from the Philippines. However, the goods are delivered when the time comes and the pacing in the first act is almost unrelenting as the narrative focuses on the pair of girls, but once they get loose in the jungle and other subplots start forming the film kind of drags. Eddie Romero's direction is as functional and even as dry as always, but at several points this simple style achieves an intense and clear exactness that drives the film forward with good rhythm.

A very recommended exploitation film with a relevant theme and all the hardcore stuff in grindhouse films you expect.

Slayers Next (1996) Anime Series Review

Slayers was a fantasy series of light novels that achieved a notable popularity and became a manga and a cult anime show in the nineties. Created by Hajime Kanzaka, the series followed temperamental and mischievous sorceress Lina Inverse on several quests and exploits in a medieval fantasy world. We already talked about the first season of the series here, so now we are gonna take a look at the sequel series Slayers Next from 1996. Next is a loose adaptation of the second, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth novels in the franchise, adapting everything to work as a direct sequel to the original first season. A lot of the crew working on the first Slayers series continued to work on this one, key players being people like director Takashi Watabe, character designer Naomi Miyata, art director Hideto Nakahara or writers Jirô Takayama and Katsumi Hasegawa.

In the series, Lina Inverse and Gaudy reunite with Amelia and Zelgadis to find the Claire Bible, a repository of a great amount of almost secret knowledge (which would be useful to make Zelgadis human again). To that you add the mysterious appearance of a man named Xelloss whose motives and origin seem elusive to all. Most of the series tracks the journey of this campaign across several kingdoms, castles, dungeons and villages up until they reach their destination and the final stretch of episodes focuses on a final battle between a mighty villain and the main crew. Sort of similar to the previous show.

Since the original writers and artists returned to work on Next, the series retains the exact same spirit of lighthearted adventure that made the original show so special. However, it does fall into a more formulaic zone and doesn't truly build anything that is different on top of what was established, having pretty much the same storytelling structure within every episode and in the whole season, at least to a very noticeable degree. I guess you can simply see it as more of that good thing you like, which isn't a negative when the characters and the writing stay top notch and consistent. Next is very good at expanding the universe (a seemingly endless one) with more places, factions, creatures, civilizations, religions and kingdoms than before.

Some people praise Next because characters got more development here, which makes sense since the first show had to establish and introduce the characters and once that's set up there's more opportunity for growth. But none of that changes things to any highly discernable or radical degree. Characters mostly stay the same and the changes are only inferable or suggested than anything else. There's really only brief instances of development, and mostly in the second half of the season, such as in episode 18, which features Lina going into an Empire Strikes Back-like training/revelation sequence (with a Yoda-like wise and crazy old lady included) that puts her abilities to the test and challenges her seemingly static and platonic relationship with Gourry. Something is done in that regard in the finale, but since romance isn't the main focus it doesn't really go anywhere and it relies more on the already mentioned suggestion of a possible attraction rather than a real and concrete feeling one could have for the other.

The new characters are mostly good additions. Before Naga there was Martina, named after renowned tennis player Martina Navratilova, who becomes the main antagonist/comedic rival to Lina and often has several battles or fights with her throughout the season. She is one of those silly/petulant but likable bad guys who you laugh at but sometimes you get surprised at how cunning they can be. Xelloss, the trickster priest, is also introduced this season and he complicates things with his expected trickery and games but often he feels a bit on-the-sidelines of most of the story, only coming out when it's required for certain plot points.

To my surprise, a lot of memorable Slayer moments and episodes come from this season oddly enough, such as the one with the all-female kingdom that features the guys in drag, the one with the magical tennis games, the one with Lina feeling the pain she inflicts on others, the one in the beach, the bath episode and many other funny and memorable misadventures. It's quite insane how nearly every episode feels tight and well structured, effectively mixing comedy, fantasy elements and light drama into every well paced and hilarious episode. Some issues are in trying to fit larger stories from the books into small arcs in multiple episodes but that's not a crucial issue here as it’s decently done at worst.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed the first season and wished to continue the franchise, this is probably the epitome of classic Slayers and one of the best sequel series of its decade.

Girlfight (2000) Movie Review

Girlfight is a sports drama film directed/written by Karyn Kusama starring Michelle Rodriguez, Jaime Tirelli, Paul Calderón and Ray Santiago. Made with a very low budget of 1 million dollars, the film was an independent production that was born out of the director's interest in a boxing story with a female lead, propelled by her own experiences learning boxing. Part of the struggle was to get this possibly offensive and daring movie even done in the first place, so she had to accept the very small amount of money and had other filmmakers contribute.

The film follows aggressive and explosive teenager from Brooklyn Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) as she begins to become captivated by boxing when she visits a gym to pick up her brother, Tiny. Diana lives with her previously abusive father, who pushed her mother to suicide, and his already mentioned brother who becomes a hope for his father as he wants the boy to be a professional boxer, even if the kid doesnt want to. Diana is told she can train but cannot fight by a local hispanic trainer, Hector. However, after spending some time with the girl the man begins to realize her potential. Taboos and baseless preconceptions are broken and Diana begins to fight professionally with both men and women, accomplishing her goals in a strict and sexist system.

While female sports movies have been more common in recent times, back then they were very rare or relegated to small projects or brief mentions, but this movie was quite a breakthrough for challenging and shattering some ideological fallacies and inspecting the life of its characters in a more raw and down to earth manner. Even outside of the sports and athletic aspects of the film, which are prominent, the film is, at its core, a very well directed and contained family drama that extrapolates the hidden rage and anger of such a troublesome environment into the protagonists desire for fighting, at first in school and then in the ring, and unleashing her previously repressed feelings. This is a very well handled coming of age story.

I was surprised by the great job the director did at stripping down the film to its bare essentials, emphasizing the performances, particularly the one by a great Michelle Rodriguez in her debut, and perfectly shooting and choreographing both the actors and the sportsmen in the fight sequences. The direction and camera work is so slick that it really becomes transparent and the drama gains power and prominence, ending up becoming deeply immersive. The many technical pitfalls of very low budget films are overcomed by a strong and pulsating vision that tries to be clear and simple every time.

There are flaws, like some strange ideological misconceptions and even some tropes that feel a bit too tiresome, like lovers having to fight or some cheap lines of dialogue that were a bit too on-the-nose. However, I will say that these are far more tolerable here than in mediocre movies of this kind, the actors and the naturalistic writing make those dialogues and scenes play out quite nicely.

A pivotal film in the subgenre, it kickstarted the career of action girl star Michelle Rodriguez into the mainstream and the career of feminist filmmaker Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux, Jennifer's Body) as well.

Recommended for sports movie fans and those who like some urban dramas with an edge and that are well executed.