JOHN BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL: anatomy of a fiasco

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Photo caption: Linda Blair in JOHN BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL. Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures.

John Boorman and the Devil tells the true story of an all-time movie-making fiasco – and it’s more entertaining than the original film could have ever hoped to be. That 1977 bomb was The Exorcist II: The Heretic, which I correctly judged at the time to unfathomably bad. In John Boorman and the Devil, Boorman and his collaborators explain, in their own words, what happened.

The Exorcist became a monster hit in 1973, making an unexpected fortune for Warner Bros. The studio, seeing others profit with Exorcist ripoffs, wanted to cash in with a genuine Exorcist sequel. Trouble was, both The Exorcist’s director William Friedkin and writer Peter Blatty felt cheated by Warners and were embroiled in bitter litigation.

The studio courted director John Boorman, who was at his height of marketability, having just made Point Blank and Deliverance, two great films that have since been added to the National Film Registry. Boorman, however, was bored by the idea of making a horror movie; instead, he wanted to make a trippy art movie, as he had with Zardoz. Unfortunately, Boorman’s vision, as reflected in the continually rewritten screenplay by Rospo Pallenburg, manifested itself as incoherent cinema. (I remember being completely puzzled as I watched Max Von Stdow wandering through an Ethiopian desert,)

Of course, the target audience for the film was the folks who had enjoyed The Exorcist. Because The Exorcist was a horror movie, they were understandably expecting Exorcist II would be another horror movie. Disappointed by the lack of horror, confused and bored, Exorcist II: The Heretic was greeted with hostility. and then ridicule, and finally laughed off the nation’s movie screens.

John Boorman in JOHN BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL. Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures.

In John Boorman and the Devil, director David Kittredge brings us interviews with Boorman himself, stars Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher, the screenwriter, the assistant directors, a camera operator and the script supervisor. We even hear from the biologist in charge of wrangling the thousands of locusts. Boorman is a good sport and reflects on his biggest personal disaster with a minimum of defensiveness or self-pity. Blair and Fletcher are delightful raconteurs.

It didn’t help that Exorcist II: The Heretic is filled with unintentionally funny moments. At one point, Linda Blair tap dances. Wearing an African tribal headdress, James Earl Jones spits out a whole tomato. Even today, Blair and Fletcher burst out laughing at the name of the movie’s demon – Pazuzu.

Boorman dryly recounts advice he received from the great director David Lean: “Everybody makes failures. Just don’t make a famous one.”

I had heard William Friedkin taking delight in a hilarious anecdote about a disastrous Pasadena test screening of Exorcist II. Because Friedkin wished the sequel and its studio ill, I had presumed that he had embellished the incident – but John Boorman and the Devil brings an eyewitness who corroborates Friedkin’s version.

And here’s another tidbit – Boorman wanted to cast then emerging star Christopher Walken, but the studio insisted on big name Richard Burton. Burton turned in a one-dimensional performance, relying on his majestic voice and gravitas and little else.

John Boorman and the Devil is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango. On October 9, Turner Classic Movies is showing John Boorman and the Devil in a double feature with Exorcist II: The Heretic; watch the first and skip thr second.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in WILD HORSE NINE, opening the Mill Valley Film Festival. Courtesy of Mill Valley Film Festival.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – my preview of the Mill Valley Film Festival, which just opened and runs through October. Every year, most of the big Oscar movies play at Mill Valley before their thetrical rekease. This year’s program includes films by many of the world’s filmmakers: Cristian Mungiu,  Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Koreeda, Pedro Almodovar, Mike Leigh, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pawel Pawlikowski, Peter Farrely, Danny Boyle, Martin McDonagh, Barbara Kopple and Ron Howard. The fest opened with Boyle’s dark comedy Wild Horse Nine with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents on Easter Island.

I also posted a new review of the observational indie dramedy The Scout, which is worth seeking out in art houses.

REMEMBRANCE

Fashion designer Bob Mackie dominated the Hollywood red carpet, adorning clients like Cher, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, and Mitzi Gaynor. I saw Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion at a SLO Film Fest screening, with Bob Mackie in person.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Julie Delpy in WHITE.

On October 5, Turner Classic Movies brings us two of Kzrysztof Kieslowski’ Three Colours trilogy which I include on my Greatest Movies of All Time. The first is Blue, starring Juliette Binoche as a woman who battles overwhelming grief by de-linking herself from all aspects of her previous life; nevertheless, some elements of her past intrude, and sh come to a complicated path forward. Because of the character’s heartbreak, most of Blue is pretty grim. I recommend that you first sample White, about a Polish immigrant who stands to get kicked out of France when his French wife (Julie Delpy) decodes to divorce him.

Oddly, TCM is not playing Red, perhaps the best of the three films, starring Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignat as two of several Parisians connected by chance and dog welfare. As the various characters thread teir ways through various sexual improprieties, including a voyeurism scandal, the final scene connects them with the protagonists of Blue and White. Red is included with Criterion and HBO and available to rent on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

The Polish auteur Kieslowski spent most of his career behind the Iron Curtain and topped off his career with five great, French-funded projects from 1989 to 1994: Dekalog, The Double Life of Veronique, Blue, White and Red. After finishing Red at age 52, he retired at the peak of his powers, and, sadly, died less than two years later during heart surgery.

THE SCOUT: not what she signed up for

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Photo caption: Mimi Davila in THE SCOUT. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

In the observational indie dramedy The Scout, Sofia (Mimi Davila) is a movie location scout, racing around NYC to find shooting locations for the pilot of a TV episodic series. That means that, all day, she meets new people, some of whom reveal discontent in their own personal lives. That also means that her frenetic work life doesn’t leave her the time or space to reflect on her own life.

Sofia’s job is to coax complete strangers into letting a film crew take over their home, she needs to build some level of trust with them. Many share the dissatisfaction with their own personal situations. The first is a woman who has successfully raised children who are living their own lives far away from her. The second is a guy bewildered by his recently becoming a stay-at-home dad; “My life is basically over,”

We are our choices. Everyone Sofia meets seems to be asking “how did life turn out this way?, a question Sofia finally poses to herself.

Sofia encounters a home owner who was once a close gal pal. It looks like she’s rediscovered a rewarding human connection, but a job fiasco intervenes. Exhausted, highly pressured and gritting her way an avalanche of indignities, Sofia finally takes a moment to take stock of her own life.

Max Rosen and Mimi Davila in THE SCOUT. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

The Scout is the first feature from writer-director Paula González-Nasser, who drew upon her own six years as a location scout. González-Nasser proves herself a keen observer of human nature. The Scout is essentially a theme braided into a series of vignettes and , González-Nasser’s construction of the story and its pacing are excellent.

Sofia is trying to satisfy the whims of a movie crew that generates plenty of droll humor, especially for their outrageous disrespect of the people who are offering their homes (“that’s an ugly door“). We cringe as the all-white creative team, every one of whom is surely on the political left, lapses into the most clueless ethnic stereotyping. They’re as serious as if they’re making Hamnet, but the pilot itself is clearly formulaic crap. (The guy who owns the fish store is pretty funny, too.)

The Scout earned buzz at its Tribeca premiere. Having opened this past weekend in New York, The Scout in rolling out more widely in theaters, beginning with the DTLA Alamo Drafthouse on Friday.

MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL: see ’em here first

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Photo caption: John Tuturro in THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK, Courtesy of Mill Valley Film Festival.

The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. MVFF49 begins on October 1 and runs through October 11. Today I’m revealing my choice for the under-the-radar Must See at the festival. But first, let’s look at the most likely audience-pleasers:

  • Wild Horse Nine: The opening night film from director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) unleashes John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents on Easter Island before Chile’s 1973 Pinochet coup. Just for good measure, the cast includes Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits.
  • I Play Rocky: The most Rocky of real life Rocky stories – unknown actor Sylvester Stallone refuses to sell his sure-fire winner of a screenplay unless he is cast in the lead role. From director Peter Farrely (Green Book).
  • Paper Tiger: James Gray, who single-handedly revived the historical adventure epic with The Lost City of Z, delivers a crime thriller with Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, Premiered at Cannes.
  • Ink: Jack O.Connell plays Larry Lamb, the editor whose trashy sensationalism made Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) the titan of tabloids. Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later) critiques both Murdoch and Britain’s posh snoots.

And, now, let’s go high-brow. MVFF49 has assembled an astonishing showcase of films by the world’s greatest directors.

  • Fjord: Let’s start with the Palm d’Or winner at Cannes.  With a family’s unity at risk, cultures clash in this psychological drama from Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days). Romania’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
  • All of a Sudden:   Another intimate drama from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)  Premiered at Cannes. Japan’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
  • Minotaur:   From exiled Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Leviathan). Premiered at Cannes. France’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
  • Bitter Christmas: Pedro Almodovar explores the ethics of turning someone else’s life into art. Played at Cannes.
  • Tender Loving Care: Sure to be another piercing glimpse into human behavior by British cinema icon Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year).
  • Fatherland   Pawel Pawlikowski (the Oscar-winning Ida) takes on Thomas Mann’s return to a post-war Berlin. Sandra Huller stars. Premiered at Cannes. Poland’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
  • Look Back  The latest from Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters, Broker).
Suzanne Gerin in LA GRADIVA. Courtesy of MVFF.

And here are two acclaimed films from emerging directors:

  • La Bola Negra:  This exploration of gay identity over the decades from the Spanish filmmaking partners Los Javis just won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto. Premiered at Cannes and purchased by Neyflix. Spain’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
  • La Gradiva: The directorial debut from cinematographer Marine Atlan follows a French high class on a trip to Naples and Pompeii. Hormones rage, and so does teen angst, as Atlan guides her non-professional cast to the emotionally powerful ending.  I’ve screened it, and every moment is authentic. Premiered at Cannes.

But don’t overlook one of the best films of 2026 – The Only Living Pickpocket in new York with its gripping, perhaps career-topping, performance by John Tuturro. In his third feature, writer-director Noah Segan, a prolific actor and protege of Rian Johnson, has created a portrait of a man who has evaded all of life’s responsibilities except one, and now finds himself desperate, not for survival, but for redemption. The performances by Tuturro and Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She-Hulk in the Marvel Universe) are award-worthy, and the cast includes Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi, Will Price, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Don’t miss this one.

And there’s more, including films from Ron Howard and Barbara Kopple, movies starring Helen Mirren, Juliette Binoche, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, a personal appearance by Lea Seydoux and a Nigerian version of Mrs. Dalloway. Peruse the MVFF49 program. Here’s the festival trailer.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sesso in TONY: Courtesy of A24.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, a new review of the comic documentary The History of Concrete and recommendations at this year’s Nashville Film Festival. Don’t overlook my recommendations from last week – David Fortune’s emotionally powerful debut Color Book and the gripping doc Sweetheart Deal, a triumph of cinéma vérité; both are available to stream.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

Robert Newton and Sally Gray in OBSESSION

“And the manner in which I dispose of your body presents no obstacles.”

So says Dr. Clive Riordan (Robert Newton), an especially diabolical and chilling movie villain, in The Obsession (The Hidden Room) coming up on October 1 on Turner Classic Movies. 1949

Riordan, a twisted psychiatrist, is addressing his wife’s American lover, Bill Kronin (Phil Brown). Riordan is addressing the infidelity of his wife Storm (Sally Gray) by kidnapping Kronin and hiding him, chained to the wall of a soundproof room behind his garage. Planning the perfect crime, Riordan intends to hold Kronin for months, until the police cease looking for him; then, Riordan intends to dissolve Kronin in a bath of acid. Riordan sadistically explains all of this to his victim, and the plan does look foolproof – but the would-be murderer doesn’t count on an intrepid Scotland Yard inspector (Naunton Wayne) and Storm’s pet dog Monty… Directed by the great classic noir director Edward Dmytryk, now working in Britain after his recent blacklisting in the US.

Robert Newton, Monty the Dog and Phil Brown in OBSESSION

THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE: a lens on absurdity

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Photo caption: John Wilson in THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The comic doc The History of Concrete finds filmmaker John Wilson looking for a project. His Emmy-nominated HBO series How to with John Wilson is off the air and some of his residual checks are in the single digits. He decides to embark on making a film with built-in absurdity – a documentary on the most uninteresting subject imaginable – concrete.

Off he goes with his camera and his wry sensibility- riffing off concrete and his own distractions. His deadpan movie pitches are funny, and so is the guy who takes outsized satisfaction at every piece of chewing gum that he sandblasts off the sidewalk. Other segments, like members of a Buddhist cults take turns walking around the same block in Queens until they amass 3100 miles, get tiresome.

But the funniest bits are only tenuously related to concrete, if at all. Wilson attends a screenwriting workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie. And then he stumbles across a new business model that preserves the tattooed flesh of departed loved ones, suitable for framing. Yikes!

Now, John Wilson is an acquired taste. I find his nasal voice to be whiny, even when he’s not whining. He also overestimates the humor and insight in some situations and lingers on them too long. The History of Concrete, while in the same vein as Erroll Morris’ Gates of Heaven or Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March, doesn’t approach matching the mastery of those auteurs. But, if you enjoy Wilson and his How to with John Wilson, then this is your movie.

The History of Concrete releases into theaters this weekend.

Best Bets at the Nashville Film Festival

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Arabella Oz in MALLORY’S GHOST. Courtesy pf Nashville Film Festival.

The Nashville Film Festival opens this Thursday, September 24, and runs through September 30 with its mix of indies, docs and international cinema, including world and North American premieres. I’ve highlighted the highest profile festival events, including Peter Frampton’s personal appearance in my Nashville Film Festival preview.

Today, I’m looking at the program, and, as usual, focusing on the first films of emerging directors. I’ve screened most of the New Director Features, and I’m recommending one as a Must See.

  • Mallory’s Ghost: In her screenwriting and directorial debut, Arabella Oz herself plays Mallory, an attractive and talented woman with a self-confidence deficit. Her boyfriend is a self-absorbed playwright, who seeks to disrupt his writer’s block by taking Mallory for a week at his mentor’s Maine retreat. An isolated, spooky mansion in the woods is a perfect setting for a conventional ghost story, but that’s not where Oz takes us – not exactly. When she learns that the boyfriend had co-written plays there before with his ex-girlfriend, Mallory becomes fixated on the ex and becomes consumed by a jealous competition that she is sure she’s losing. Oz is both filmmaker and psychotherapist, and her clever, even ingenious, screenplay embeds a film of self-discovery into a singular and highly original ghost story. I sure didn’t anticipate where the second and third acts were going. Nominated for a jury prize at SXSW, Mallory’s Ghost is an impressive and absorbing film.
Anthony Ippolito in I PLAY ROCKY. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios and Nashville Film Festival.

This year’s Nashville Film Festival program is most appetizing. I haven’t seen these five movies yet, but they look most promising.

  • I Play Rocky: Director Peter Farrely’s telling of the most Rocky of Rocky stories – of screenwriter Sylvester Stallone refusing to sell his sure-fire winner of a script unless he could play the lead.
  • The Incomer: A bewildered bureaucrat (Domhnall Gleeson) drops into an isolated and unwelcoming Scottish island; this fable won an award at this year’s Sundance.
  • The Liberation: Based on a true story, this drama is making a big impact on the festival circuit, including Toronto, Telluride and Deauville, Carrie Coon leads a great cast of Lily James, Bella Ramsey and Tracey Letts. Set for release in early January, see it now at Nashville Film Festival.
  • Tender Loving Care: Sure to be another piercing glimpse into human behavior by British cinema icon Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year).

All in all, this year’s Nashville Film Festival presents 150 films from 25+ countries. Peruse the program and get tickets. Here’s the trailer for The Incomer.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jeremiah Daniels and William Catlett in COLOR BOOK. Courtesy of NashFilm.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of David Fortune’s emotionally powerful debut Color Book and the gripping doc Sweetheart Deal, a triumph of cinéma vérité.

CURRENT MOVIES

ON TV

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Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN

On September 19, Turner Classic Movies will present The Narrow Margin, a taut 71 minutes of tension from my Overlooked Noir. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target. McGraw and Windsor’s performances are first-rate, and their hardboiled dialogue is terrific. Director Richard Fleisher, early in his career, imaginatively stages the woman-hunt up and down the tight corridors and compartments of the moving train. I just rewatched The Narrow Margin at the 2025 Noir City, and it’s still a masterpiece.

SWEETHEART DEAL: a triumph of cinéma vérité

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Photo caption: Kristine in SWEETHEART DEAL Courtesy of Abramorama; copyright Aurora Stories LLC.

The engrossing documentary Sweetheart Deal follows four Seattle sex workers; none of them want to be working in prostitution, but each is a heroin addict and sees obstacles to getting sober. They are at best indifferent to the men they service, and each night they fear that some customer will turn out to be a murderer.

Elliott is a man in his 60s who lives in an RV parked on the strip. He says his mission is to keep the prostitutes safe, offer them comfort and encourage them to kick their addiction. All four women drop in to Elliott’s RV for a meal or a nap. Elliot’s RV is the hub of Sweetheart Deal.

This is a remarkably empathetic film. Each woman tells her own story of addiction, and we witness the ravages of heroin addiction upon their health and the carnage in their family relationships. In the third act, there’s an an unexpected betrayal, sickening and monstrous. Not every heroin addict who works the streets is going to survive. But even the most vulnerable can sometimes find the power to find justice and save themselves – and that’s the ultimate redemption in Sweetheart Deal.

It’s harder to identify with Elliott, despite his self-proclaimed altruism. Essentially, he’s just another homeless guy who is getting a form of status and authority from his vocation with the women. He enjoys the attention of the documentary crew and reporter, so much so that he doesn’t notice that the reporter is appalled by an inappropriate boast.

Sweetheart Deal is a triumph of cinéma vérité. A project of over seven years, Sweetheart Deal is the first feature directed by Elisa Levine and the late Gabriel Miller, and it is brilliant filmmaking on several levels. The filmmakers managed to engender an amazing level of trust with their subjects, resulting in the access that allows the audience inside their world. It’s also brilliantly constructed and edited; the very first shot of the film – a man feeding pigeons – takes on new meaning and importance by the end of the film.

When I screened this movie in 2024, I had already seen fifteen documentaries and screened another 80 while helping to program a film festival – Sweetheart Deal was the best of them all.

Sweetheart Deal had a brief theatrical run in 2024 and is now available to stream on Amazon and AppleTV.

COLOR BOOK: authentic and endearing

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Photo caption: Jeremiah Daniels and William Catlett in COLOR BOOK. Courtesy of NashFilm.

Yesterday I previewed the upcoming Nashville Film Festival. One of the Must Sees from last year’s NashFilm is now available on Netflix – David Fortune’s emotionally powerful drama Color Book.

After the sudden death of his wife, Lucky (William Catlett) is left to parent their son Mason (Jeremiah Daniels), who has Down syndrome. Now grieving and trying to make ends meet on a one income, Lucky faces the unrelenting struggles of single parenting –  why does everything have to be so hard? 

Although he has a hard time asking for help, in many ways, Lucky is the ideal dad – affectionate, patient and consistent. Lucky wants to thrill Mason with his first major league baseball game, but, on the way, the two get a bigger dose of Atlanta’s transit system than they would ever want. The journey is far more more meaningful than is the destination.

Atlanta writer-director David Fortune has won eight festival awards in the US and France with his inaugural film. The black and white cinematography by Nikolaus Dummerer is exquisite.

Without a hint of sentimentality, Color Book is authentic and endearing. Color Book is now streaming on Netflix.