Gideon58's Reviews

[Gideon58]

Fatale
The director of Black and Blue is not quite as successful with 2020's Fatale, an overheated and convoluted Fatal Attraction rip-off that produces more unintentional giggles than erotic thrills or suspense.
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Derrick Tyler is a handsome sports agent in a troubled marriage who goes to a bachelor party in Las Vegas and has a one night stand with an attractive stranger. After returning to his regular life, Derrick and his wife, Tracie are awakened one night by an intruder in the house who seriously assaults Derrick. Three guesses who the police detective is assigned to Derrick's case?
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Director Deon Taylor attempts to dress this one up with fancy camerawork and an attractive cast. but the problem really lies in David Lougherty's silly screenplay that shamelessly rips off not only the 1987 Glenn Close Best Picture nominee, but some of his own earlier work. We actually see Derrick and the police detective get on a big freight elevator leading to her expansive loft, just like in Fatal Attraction, just a few scenes after they're in bed in Vegas and the detective makes it clear that she is not the least bit concerned that Derrick is married. There is even a direct ripoff of the scene where Michael Douglas walks into his apartment and finds Alex there with his wife, Beth. Unfortunately, the story gets truly messy when we learn that this detective has her own agenda outside of crazy monkey sex with Derrick.
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Once the detective's agenda comes to light, we have to separate stories that never really connect as they should. There is too much going on here with too many suspects and figuring out exactly what was going on, which took all the drama out of the story and brought on the aforementioned unintentional giggles. The predictability story wasn't helped by the fact that this Derrick character was dumb as a box of rocks, making it difficult to stay invested in the proceedings.
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Two time Oscar winner Hillary Swank does bring some flash to the story as Detective Val Quinlan, but truthfully, she deserves better than this. Michael Ealy is easy on the eyes as Derrick, but his performance is a little overbaked, though I did enjoy Mike Colter as Derek's business partner, but this one was pretty rough going. 2

[Gideon58]

Mr. Imperium
MGM ruled the 1940's and 50's where making musicals were concerned, but they had a serious misstep with an unremarkable piece of fluff from 1951 called Mr. Imperium, a star-crossed musical romance that doesn't really work because of the questionable casting of the leads.
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Lana Turner, one of MGM's biggest stars though not known for musicals. plays Fredrika "Fredda" Barlow, a nightclub singer working in Italy who meets a European prince named Prince Alexis (Ezio Pinza), with whom she has a whirlwind romance that comes to an end when the Prince's father falls ill and the Prince must assume the throne. Twelve years later, Fredda, now a big movie star, is reunited with the King, who now calls himself Mr. Imperium,. at a Palm Springs resort.
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The story is really not the problem. Director and co-screenwriter Don Hartman has brought us a predictable, but viable story that plays just like a lot of other musicals of the period, but the odd casting of the leads really make this one a rather labored musical journey. The sense I got as I watched this film is that this film was intended for stars that just weren't available at the time. For some reason, Lana Turner is cast in a musical comedy playing a singer, even though she can't sing (her singing is dubbed by Trudi Ervin) and her leading man, Pinza, freshly plucked from Broadway's production of South Pacific, where he originated the role of Emile DeBeque, is inexperienced onscreen, not to mention that he is WAY too old to be a believable romantic interest for Turner. Watching these two onscreen reminded me of watching Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs...great dancers, but there was a real "ick" factor watching them together.
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This film also suffers from another disease that plagued a lot of MGM musicals. They loved to set their stories in foreign locations like Italy and Paris, and even though there were a few establishing shots of Italy and Paris, it's glaringly obvious that this production never left the confines of an MGM soundstage.
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Turner looks great but she appears to be as uncomfortable in this kind of role as she should be. Pinza has a gorgeous voice, but his hammy performance is only outdone by his lack of chemistry with Turner. Barry Sullivan is wasted in a small role as Lana's Hollywood boyfriend, but Marjorie Main and a very young Debbie Reynolds are fun as the resort manager and her nosy niece. Even the most devout musical fan might want to give this one a pass. 2

[Gideon58]

Yes Day
Despite a pretty interesting premise, the 2021 comedy Yes Day provides few genuine laughs and just gets sillier and less interesting as the film lumbers to its lame conclusion.
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Allison and Carlos Torres were the king and queen of fun and excitement when they first met but now that they are married with three kids, Carlos has become a workaholic which has forced Allison to become the bad cop at home, saying no to just about everything they want. After seeing a video that their son made at school, Allison and Carlos agree to give their kids a "Yes Day", where they agree to say yes to everything the kids ask for 24 hours, with minor restrictions. The day is complicated by a side bet between Allison and her daughter, Katie where if Allison says no to anything, Katie will be allowed to attend a rock concert by herself.
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Don't get me wrong, the premise here is rock solid and the screenplay by Justin Malen (Office Christmas Party) smartly sets up what's supposed to happen with a solid assist from film editor Jay Deuby that makes the art of effective parenting look pretty cruel sometimes and unfair to the kids. Unfortunately, the adventures that result from yes day, just aren't that funny. The consumption of an ice cream monstrosity called The Gut Buster provided a few laughs, but a complicated paint ball-type game called Kablowey, going through a car wash with windows down, a trip to Magic Mountain and a battle over a pink gorilla and something called a Nerd party that climaxed with a house full of foam couldn't even keep this reviewer engaged for the entire 90 minute running time.
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Director Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl) shows a real lack of discipline in his directing and really lets this one get away from him. The lesson that children require parenting is beaten into the viewer's head ad nauseum, but a lot of the directions where this story goes aren't as funny or as entertaining as the director and screenwriter might have imagined.
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Apparently, a lot of Hollywood stars saw the deficiencies in this story as few major stars are on board here. Jennifer Garner works very hard in the role of Allison, but she works so hard, she's exhausting to watch and looks suitably embarrassed. I did really like Edgar Ramirez as Carlos and Jenna Ortega as their eldest daughter, Katie, but getting through this one was no easy feat. 2

[Gideon58]

A Big Hand for the Little Lady
The 1966 western A Big Hand for the Little Lady is a breezy and brilliant comedy that provides rich entertainment from opening to closing credits thanks to spirited direction, an absolutely winning cast, and a beautifully layered screenplay that provides one of the most inspired plot twists at its finale that I guarantee you won't see coming.
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Meredith, his wife Mary, and his son Jackie are on their way to purchase a farm in San Antonio, when their wagon breaks down and they are forced to stop in a small town to get it repaired. They walk into a hotel where an annual poker game is taking place with the richest men in the counties as participants, including a lawyer who walked out in the middle of a trial and a man who walked out on his daughter's wedding, to get to the game in time. Meredith's past with gambling finds him drooling to get in the game and he ends up spending all of his savings on the game and at a pivotal point in the game where Meredith believes he has a winning hand, he has a heart attack and wife Mary is forced to step up.
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This movie provides sparkling entertainment, thanks primarily to a rich screenplay by Sidney Carroll that originally pretends to be centered around universal themes like addiction and sexism. That first moment when Meredith eyes light up when he realizes what's going on in that back room are so telling and we're convinced that we're being subject to a film about gambling addiction and then when Meredith is out of the picture, the story seems to shift to a look at sexist attitudes regarding women during the old west, but that's not what the film is about either. Even as the climactic poker game comes to its conclusion, we are still duped into thinking we're watching one kind of story when we're really watching something completely unexpected.
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Carroll and director Fielder Cook allow this extremely deft story to unfold slowly, showing each of the participants in the poker game dropping whatever they're doing without even thinking about it to get to this game on time. We can't imagine what would be so important that a man would walk out on his daughter's wedding and we can't imagine how a woman who knows nothing about poker is going to get back her family's life savings. And the tension created by the supposedly winning hand that Mary is holding (which we never see BTW) is unlike anything I've ever experienced.
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Cook and Carroll's work is brought vividly to life by an extraordinary cast of pros working at the top of their game. Henry Fonda is charming as Meredith and Joanne Woodward is just enchanting as Mary, and get solid supporting from Jason Robards as the angry Henry Drummond, Charles Bickford as the woman-hating Tropp. and Paul Ford, offering another of his accustomed blustery performances as the banker CP Ballinger. Anyway you slice it, a classic that never really got the attention it deserved. Bravo! 4.5

[gbgoodies]

A Big Hand for the Little Lady
The 1966 western A Big Hand for the Little Lady is a breezy and brilliant comedy that provides rich entertainment from opening to closing credits thanks to spirited direction, an absolutely winning cast, and a beautifully layered screenplay that provides one of the most inspired plot twists at its finale that I guarantee you won't see coming.
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Anyway you slice it, a classic that never really got the attention it deserved. Bravo! 4.5


I love A Big Hand for the Little Lady. It made the top ten on both my 1960s list and my Westerns list.

[Gideon58]

Kid90
My recent viewing of the documentary Showbiz Kids motivated my viewing of the similarly-themed Kid90, a 2021 documentary which is another look at show business kids, but through the eyes of one particular kid. Unfortunately, this film comes off more as a filmed therapy session than an insightful look into the difficulties of children in show business.
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At the tender age of eight, Soleil Moon Frye was cast in the title role of an NBC sitcom called Punky Brewster that ran from 1984 to 1988 and made her one of television's biggest stars. The cancellation of the show was and her physical maturing led to the eventual demolition of her career and Frye's whole experience with this, combined with brief glances at other show business kids she was working with and became friends with, is what makes up the crux of this film.
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The film initially fascinates and garners great sympathy for Frye as it is revealed that after the cancellation of the sitcom, Frye went through a remarkable physical development that climaxed with her having size double D breasts by the time she was 13. Needless to say, this limited the kind of roles she could play and actually led to her having breast reduction surgery (thoroughly documented here). Sympathy for Frye begins to wane for the viewer as we learn the surgery did nothing to help her career and Frye began acting out in myriad ways.
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The film then degenerates into some serious name dropping as we are offered brief glimpses of people like Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Brian Austin Green, Stephen Dorff, Jonathan Brandis, Corey Feldman, and the lead singers of House of Pain and Jane's Addiction, who were going through similar career difficulties, but their difficulties are shoved to the back burner in favor of Frye's brief interludes into their individual lives. It also might have been nice to get a little more insight into Frye's pain from her parents and her brother, actor Meeno Peluce.
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The name dropping here is staggering and there is some interesting movie making technique implied here and there. I loved the footage of phone messages from big stars like Charie Sheen and Mark Wahlberg, but for al the stars involved here, we get precious little insight into them, as interviews with them only lasted seconds. Even information provided about Frye is confusing...I think I counted three different stories she offered about losing her virginity and I'm still not sure which one was the truth. Pretty sure this was very therapeutic for Frye, but it's an unfocused and sometimes confusing journey for the viewer. 3

[Gideon58]

Harvey
A magical performance by James Stewart in the starring role is the heart of a whimsical 1950 comedy called Harvey, that cleverly combines slapstick comedy. fantasy, romance, and the audience's imagination to create a truly unique and enchanting film experience that still provides sparkling entertainment after 70 years.
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Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a sweet-natured and eccentric man who gives out business cards to everyone he meets (even though he doesn't appear to have a job) and goes to a bar every day and has martinis with his best friend, an invisible rabbit named Harvey who stands 6 feet and 3 and a half inches tall. Elwood's sister, Veda and his spinsterish niece Myrtle think he's insane and Veda decides to have Elwood committed to a mental hospital.
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A comedy of errors commences when, upon arrival at the hospital, Veda ends up being committed and Elwood finds himself advancing the stalled romance between Dr. Sanderson and Nurse Kelly, who work at the hospital, as well as completely befuddling Dr. Chumley, the head of the hospital. Another relationship blooms between Myrtle and a wise-cracking hospital aide named Wilson.
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The film is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Mary Chase that premiered on Broadway in 1949 and ran for over 1700 performances. Chase was actually allowed to adapt her own play into a warm and often wacky story that takes the concept of the childhood imaginary friend to a different level. Even though a lot of people in Dowd's life think he is insane because they believe Harvey is imaginary, the premise here seems to be that Harvey is not imaginary, but invisible, evidenced by a mid-story plot twist where Dowd shows up with a painting of he and Harvey together. This is where the audience's imagination comes in.
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The screenplay never really commits to whether Harvey is imaginary or invisible, but does commit to Dowd's relationship with the rabbit, that is so real to Dowd that we are in the final act of the story before Dowd even realizes that his sister is trying to have him committed and, of course, he doesn't understand why. Audience imagination really kicks in during a scene in the second act, brilliantly performed by Stewart, where Dr. Sanderson tries to convince Dowd that Harvey is really a symbol from someone's past. Dowd denies it, but the way the scene is played we're never really sure. Our belief regarding Harvey is strengthened when Dowd somehow gets Dr. Chumley to believe, with the aid of visual effects. Dowd's belief is never swayed and he never commits to imagination or invisibility, which is what makes this story so enchanting.
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The film features rich production values, including gorgeous black and white photography that bring a layer of reality to the insanity. Ten years after winning his first Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, Stewart received his fourth Best Actor nomination for his Elwood P. Dowd and veteran Josephine Hull won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her dotty Veda. Cecil Kellaway offers one of his strongest performances as Dr. Chumley and Jesse White steals every scene he's in as Wilson. A warm and winning movie classic that will have the viewer wondering if Harvey exists. 4.5

[Gideon58]

Marshall
Despite melodramatic direction and a by-the-numbers screenplay, the fact based 2017 drama Marshall, documenting an early case of African American legal legend Thurgood Marshall, remains watchable thanks to really terrific performances, especially by the late Chadwick Boseman in the title role.
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Not a birth to death chronicle as the title implies, this film documents a trial undertaken by Marshall (Boseman) to defend a black man named Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) accused of raping a white woman (Kate Hudson) in Bridgeport Connecticut. Upon his arrival in Bridgeport, Marshall learns that the bar association in that state will not allow him to actually try the case, but he will be second chair while a young Jewish civil attorney named Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) actually defends Spell while Marshall must sit in the second chair and not utter a word.
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This is not cinema's first look at the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Laurence Fishburne played Marshall in one man play filmed in 2011 and Sidney Poitier played him in an ABC mini-series in 1991, but those versions were more a look at Marshall the man, which this film is definitely not. If you're looking for insight into Thurgood Marshall the man or how he achieved what he did, you won't find answers here. What we learn about Marshall in this film is that he was the definitive lawyer regarding civil rights in the courtroom, so the idea of him being the puppet for a white attorney is an interesting one that doesn't quite work as well as it should.
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As always with courtroom dramas like this one, the defendant's innocence is established early on and the dramatic road to proving his innocence goes on a lot longer than it should and goes everywhere we think it's going on with very few surprises along the way. The expected racism starts with jury selection and makes some hard to swallow moves, such as the DA offering a deal to the defendant after the very first witness. When we learn exactly what happened, the DA inexplicably again offers a plea to the witness again in what seems to be just an excuse to pad running time. The relationship that develops between Marshall and Friedman is nice, but predictable. Even the clearly biased Judge (superbly played by James Cromwell) comes off as a dramatic take on Fred Gwynne's judge in My Cusin Vinny. The only glimpse of originality comes during the closing statements, which loses some of its power because Marshall is not in the courtroom. The shot of Marshall learning of the verdict and then drinking from a water fountain marked for whites only, smacked of unnecessary pretension.
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Director Reginald Hudlin, primarily known for his television work, might have bitten off a little more than he could chew here, but his heavy hand makes the film a little labored, despite the handsome production values applied to the story. Boseman is splendid, as always, and works really well with Gad, who nails the strongest role of his career. Brown and Hudson are superb as the defendant and the victim as well. There's also a brief cameo by Oscar nominee Andra Day (The United States vs Billie Holliday as (surprise!) a nightclub singer. With a little more imagination in direction and writing, this could have been spectacular, but, as always, the late Chadwick Boseman makes it worth watching. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Hardcore
A powerhouse performance from Oscar winner George C. Scott anchors a gritty and uncompromising drama from 1979 called Hardcore that pulls back the curtains on a world we would like to not think exists and strips it bare without ever letting its sympathetic central character lose his place as the heart of this ugly story.
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Scott plays Jake VanDorn, a God fearing wealthy businessman from Grand Rapids, Michigan who panics when his teenage daughter disappears during a church trip to California. He hires a two bit detective to find his daughter who pretty quickly finds a porno film featuring Jake's daughter. Finding the detective unreliable, Jake fires him and boards a plane to California, determined to find his daughter.
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Director and screenwriter Paul Schrader, who wrote films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Blue Collar, has once again created an often shocking but never unrealistic look at an often sleazy and ugly industry that, on the surface, should provide a titillation factor with the canvas of the story being the world of pornography, an industry that is pretty much obsolete in 2021, but it remains a viable setting if not the center of the story because of this father whose mission is to find a daughter. This story is not about pornography, it's about a father trying to find his daughter.
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What I found so believable about this story is that as determined as this father was, he really had no clue as to go about what he was doing. It's a little funny and a little pathetic watching him try to question people directly about where his daughter is and confronting a literal wall, like the wall that the police and the military have where there is an unspoken code of allegiance that a stranger cannot penetrate, so he has try different angles and eventually ends up pinning his hopes on a pathetic porn star and prostitute, effectively played Season Hubley.
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This story rivets the viewer and as it progresses and we learn by the final act that Jake's daughter has been missing for five months, a fear begins to surface for him and the viewer that by the time he finds her, his daughter may be in so deep that she won't want to come back.
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Schrader has to be credited for the casting of the always watchable George C. Scott in the starring role. It's possible that this film wouldn't have been anywhere near as gripping an experience with another actor in the role. Peter Boyle makes the most of his screen time as the sleazy private dick, and if you don't blink, you'll catch familiar faces in small roles like Dick Sargent, Bibi Besch, Hal Williams, and Ed Begley Jr. Jack Nitzche's creepy music score is the icing on this cinematic cake that, above everything else, showcases the talent of Paul Schrader and the amazing George C. Scott. 4

[Gideon58]

French Exit
A glorious performance from its leading lady is the best thing about 2020's French Exit a labored and pretentious comedy where impeccable attention to production values doesn't disguise leaden direction and a meandering and often confusing screenplay.
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Three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer knocks it out of the park as Frances Price, an eccentric and glamorously aging Manhattan socialite who is going through the last of her inheritance and has decided the solution to her problems is to move to Paris with her son, Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) and their cat.
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Screenwriter Patrick Dewitt actually could have used some assistance adapting his own novel to the screen because despite a relatively solid premise and interesting lead characters, this film has no discernible plot, just a series of vignettes with bizarre characters that, for reasons that aren't really explained, all end up together in Frances and Malcolm's apartment seeking comfort, confronting demons, and forcing relationships that just aren't meant to be. This oddly disparate group of characters who cross Frances and Malcolm's path includes a detective Frances hires to find the cat when he runs away, a bitchy overweight medium who Malcom meets on the cruise to Paris, and Malcolm's fiancee (Imogen Poots), who Malcolm walked out on to go to Paris, but she shows up there anyway with her new boyfriend.
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The confusing screenplay is impossible to keep up with and parts are just hard to swallow, thanks to an absurdist theater sensibility to the proceedings. Frances has supposedly moved to Paris because she's broke, but upon her arrival, starts giving what little money she has left away. It's also revealed that she is either suicidal or dying, but it's never made clear which. She and her son are polar opposites...Frances speaks and acts without filter and Malcom keeps everything he's feeling bottled up until the end of the second act. The final straw in terms of credibility came for this reviewer when it's revealed that Frances' husband and Malcolm's father are supposedly inside the cat and then his voice is heard coming out of a candle during a seance.
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Director Azazel Jacobs provides interesting camera work and makes Paris look like the most beautiful city in the world, which sometimes distracts from the confusing story. Michelle Pfeiffer's deliciously unhinged performance as Frances is riveting and earned her a Golden Globe nomination, but it's not enough to make this film the rich experience it was meant to be. 3

[Gideon58]

The Night They Raided Minsky's
1968's The Night They Raided Minsky's is a madcap and sweetly nostalgic musical comedy that looks at a forgotten era of show business, that has become a minor classic due to surprisingly detailed direction, a period appropriate story, and an incredible cast of professionals working at the top of their game.
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It's New York in the roaring 20's where a young Amish girl named Rachel is observed fresh off the bus from Pennsylvania arriving in the Big Apple wanting to be a dancer. She finds herself at the stage door of the legendary burlesque house, Minsky's, which is going through its own myriad crises at the time, including a threatened raid by the police, the father and son owners of the theater trying to save the theater from closing and financial reunion, and Raymond and Chick, the baggy-pants comic headliners who find their friendship and careers threatened when they both for Rachel.
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Future television legend Norman Lear was one of the screenwriters for this nearly brilliant look at the genesis of show business that ends up going through an important transition that we really don't see coming. My only quibble with the story would be that it seemed a little unbelievable that an Amish girl would be so quickly seduced into this show business madness, even if she is offered a chance to save the theater in an eye-opening finale that anyone who has seen the musical Gypsy will recognize.\
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Director William Friedkin, with a solid assist from his editing team, puts loving care in bringing the roaring 20's to life, even with an overabundance of archival footage from the 20's, that really wasn't necessary. Friedkin's interpretation of concepts like vaudeville, burlesque, and farce is on the money here, perfectly combined with larger than life characters that are still human and flawed. I even loved the difference between the movie makeup and the stage makeup applied here...whenever the actors were onstage, the had enough rouge and eye liner on to choke a horse.
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The film features a handful of cute songs by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, who wrote the score for Bye Bye Birdie, that fit the setting for the story perfectly.
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The incredible cast is headlined by Jason Robards, doing another slick turn as Raymond, Norman Wisdom, who brings a Charlie Chaplin quality to Chick, and the appropriately wide-eyed Britt Ekland as Rachel. A deliciously entertaining classic that has never gotten the attention it deserved. 4

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Bliss (2021)
Mike Cahill, the creative force behind a film I really liked called Another Earth is much less successful with 2021's Bliss, a confusing and convoluted romantic fantasy that works so difficult at being quirky and offbeat, that the journey the viewer is taken on is so exhausting that we give up well before the conclusion.
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The film stars Owen Wilson as Greg Wittle, a divorced dad and business executive who is obsessed with a drawing he's made of a fantasy world that occupies his head. Greg is called to his boss' office, where he is promptly fired and then accidently kills the man. Greg hides the body and sneaks out of the office to a bar across the street where he meets Isabel (Salma Hayek) a mysterious woman who lives on the streets and is somehow aware of exactly what has just happened with Greg. She takes him to her homeless camp where she offers him refuge from the police until his boss' death is declared an accident. She then displays what can only be explained as magical powers. that she is able to pass on to Greg. This leads to a series of bizarre misadventures which eventually lead to Greg and Isabel being transported to the world from Greg's drawing.
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The world of Greg's drawing reveals that Isabel is actually a research scientist who has created a world that Isabel the homeless person believed was just a computer simulation, which is why Greg believes he has gotten away with murdering his boss. The story is further complicated by Greg's daughter, Emily, who is somehow a part of both worlds, determined to get her father back, despite the fact that the father in his fantasy world doesn't know who she is.
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Cahill definitely scores points in terms of imagination and originality, taking a tragic and believable accident into an elaborate fantasy for which there can be no logical explanation. Greg and Isabel's connection in the computer simulated world of homelessness and accidental murder is sad and funny and engages the viewer, but the alleged love story that develops between them in the fantasy world, which includes magic crystals and a cursed amulet, works against the relationship between Greg and Isabel and makes Emily a hapless victim, not deserving the pain she is put through. We do finally get a variation on the "And then I woke up" scene that sort of explains the madness we've witnessed, but by this point. it's too late for the audience to really care.
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Cahill's direction and attention to production values are a little stronger than his screenplay, but it's often hard to tell. Owen Wilson really steps out of his comfort zone as an actor here, working very hard to stretch himself as an actor, but Salma Hayek really seems out of her element as the ethereal Isabel, whose believability as a character is instrumental in making the audience accept what happens here. A bold and angry cinematic statement that either I didn't understand or didn't work. 2

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What's the Matter with Helen?
Fans of the Bette Davis Joan Crawford classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane will have a head start with the similarly titled and themed What's the Matter with Helen, a campy and nostalgic thriller from 1971 that is no Baby Jane, but is well worth investing in thanks to the eye-opening performances from the stars.
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It's 1940's Hollywood where we meet Adele Bruckner (Debbie Reynolds) and Helen Hill (Shelley Winters), lifelong friends who try to escape a troubling past by moving to Hollywood and opening a dance school for children. It's not long before the ladies realize that not only might the past be catching up to them, but it might also be repeating itself.
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Screenwriter Henry Farrell takes a little too much time establishing the period, but he does effectively sketch out the characters of Adele and Helen and their relationship. Adele is a self-absorbed diva trying to forget the past, which seems to include a failed show business career that she's in denial about. Helen is clearly still stuck in the past, wracked with guilt about it, and not happy that Adele doesn't feel the guilt she does
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Director Curtis Harrington, whose career was steeped in low budget horror, was really in his element here. Love the creepy diction teacher who keeps sneaking up on Helen and acting like he didn't know he was startling her. Also loved Helen trying to confess to a phony evangelist (a glorious cameo by Agnes Moorehead).
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Harrington shows a real skill for the immediate "Boo" and gets great performances from his cast, especially the stars. Debbie Reynolds is nothing short of superb as the flighty Adele and few actresses play unhinged better than Shelley Winters, who Harrington also directed in Who Slew Auntie Roo. Winters' Helen reminded me of the alcoholic doormats that Winters played in the 50's. The Baby Jane influence cannot be ignored, but Reynolds and Winters definitely make it worth your time. 3.5

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Cruella
Disney knocks it out of the park with 2021's Cruella, a handsomely mounted, live-action re-imagining of one of its most famous animated characters, that rivets from start to finish thanks to spectacular production values, meticulously detailed direction, and a pair of dazzling performances from two Oscar winning actresses named Emma.
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The villainess from the classic Disney animated feature 101 Dalmatians is given a three dimensional re-imagining that's follows a young girl named Estella from her troubled childhood to a period of petty thievery that eventually leads to a a job working for a legendary fashion designer named The Baroness with whom a connection to the past and a present rivalry are established
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First of all, it's not necessary to have seen any of the Dalmatians movies to appreciate what is happening here. In the style of Joaquin Phoneix's Joker, the character has been given a new backstory through a complex and sophisticated screenplay that immediately establishes sympathy for a character traditionally revered as a villainess and does it with such style and wit that we can't help but love her. Pitting the character against an antagonist who is a lot like herself fascinates throughout. Both Estella and the Baroness are given ultra clever dialogue that provides insight into them. I loved when the Baroness says "I'm intrigued...that never happens." The relationship between Estella and the Baroness initially resembles the relationship between Andy and Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada, but morphs into something so richer. I also loved that Estella and Cruella thinks of herself as two different people.
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Director Craig Gillepsie (I, Tonya) takes his time, perhaps just a tad too much time, allowing the story to unfold and probably could have been a little more economic in the mounting of exposition, giving the film a slow start, but once Estella meets the Baroness, the
story fires on all cylinders, thanks to Oscar-worthy camerawork, editing, costumes, and allowing the camera to often telegraph character emotion and development.
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Emma Stone gives the performance of her career as Cruella, easily trumping her Oscar-winning performance in La La Land and Emma Thompson is a crisp and caustic Baroness, a performance that should earn her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Also have to give shout outs to Walter Paul Hauser (Richard Jewell), Joel Fry, and Mark Strong in supporting roles and a music/song score that defies description. Intoxicating entertainment that I wasn't expecting. Bouquets all around. 4.5

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The Trouble with Harry
Long before he established himself as the king of cinematic suspense, Alfred Hitchcock scored with a practically forgotten black comedy/murder mystery from 1955 called The Trouble with Harry, that provided delicious entertainment, even though today it is best known for being the film debut of a future movie legend, though it has so much more to offer.
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The setting of this little gem is a small mountain town in Vermont where we meet a retired tugboat captain named Wiles, who is out hunting and thinks he has accidentally shot a man named Harry. Wiles wants to dispose of the body, but before he can, the body is discovered by a lonely spinster named Miss Gravely, who has been harboring a crush on Wiles, a young widow named Jennifer and her son, a bum who steals Harry's shoes, a nearsighted doctor who trips over the body without realizing what it is, and a handsome artist named Sam, none of whom seem terribly upset about the man's death or about reporting it to the authorities.
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Hitchcock is given a quietly brilliant screenplay to work with provided by longtime collaborator John Michael Hayes, who wrote the screenplays for Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Marnie, that brings a quiet lyric quality in its establishing of small town atmosphere, while at the same time, providing a perverse indifference to the death of a man who may or may not deserve it. The viewer is simultaneously confused and amused as not only a connection to Harry is revealed through the characters we meet, but an unseemly obsession to keeping Harry's death a secret, which actually finds the folks involved having to bury, dig up, and re-bury the body more than once. Just as the viewer has settled into these people's indifference toward poor Harry, it's implied that Harry's spirit might not be happy about the way his body is being treated.
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The story implies that Harry may have gotten what's coming to him, but never completely commits to it while the concept of murder is seemingly whitewashed, the same way it was in a previous Hitchcock classic called Rope, that also takes the concept of getting away with murder and almost legitimizes it, but the screenplay provides just enough contrivances and Hitchcock provides just enough of his uncanny storytelling skill that the viewer almost forgets that the murder of a human being is being covered up here.
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Hitchcock covers the almost indecency of what is going on here with handsome production values, including gorgeous color photography, that only enhances the perversity of what's going on here. Hitchcock also seems to have assembled a perfect ensemble cast to pull off this story with standout work from Oscar winner Edmund Gwenn as the befuddled Captain Wiles, John Forsythe as the young artist, Mildred Natwick as the lonely spinster, and making an appealing film debut as the widow Jennifer, future Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine. And if the young boy playing her son looks familiar, that's because it's the future Beaver Cleaver, young Jerry Mathers. Another underrated gem from Alfred Hitchcock that never got the attention it deserved. 4

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Spiral
Chris Rock continues to try and revive his career as the star and executive producer of 2021's Spiral, a confusing and relentlessly bloody combination of police drama and horror based on the original Saw franchise. This review is coming from someone who only saw snippets of the first Saw film and none of the sequels.
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Rock plays Detective Ezekiel Banks, a hardened veteran police detective whose career and relationships with his fellow cops went south many years ago when he fingered a dirty cop, finds himself thrust in the middle of a bizarre investigation where several of his colleagues, who have all been accused of being dirty cops at some point, start dying grisly deaths at the hand of the infamous Jigsaw Killer, who apparently was the villain in the Saw movies.
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Having not seen any of the Saw movies, it's difficult to tell whether this film is a re-thinking of the franchise or a continuation of the last film in the series because the screenwriters and director Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed all of the Saw films but the first one, seem to assume here that the viewer has seen the previous films and have placed the Jigsaw Killer in the middle of a by-the-numbers police drama that picks kind of an obvious target for its unrelenting gore...dirty cops. Unfortunately, the punishment seems to vastly outweigh the crimes.
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The overly complex screenplay starts off with a conventional veteran cop breaking in a new partner story, but then not only begins to mercilessly wipe out half the cast, but also flashes back to the events that turned Banks' career into the living hell, further complicated by his being caught in the shadow of his father (Samuel L. Jackson). Eventually the story pares down to the undeniably grisly murders of dirty cops that do display a degree of originality in terms of cinematic violence, as we witness one cop's tongue ripped out while being run down by a subway, another one have his fingers ripped off, and one involving a man in a bottle factory that literally had this viewer turning his head away from the screen.
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Bousman applies a lot of skill with the camera and a solid assist from film editor Dev Singh, but the unrelenting gore on display here didn't have the effect for this reviewer that it should have, but I'm not sure if it's because of my unfamiliarity with franchise or just messy filmmaking. The overripe performances from Rock and Jackson don't help sustain interest either. Maybe fans of the original Saw franchise will find entertainment here, but nothing here motivated me to go back to the original movie and figure out what I didn't understand. 2

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Unfaithfully Yours (1984)
The screenplay doesn't have the sophistication or caustic bite of the 1948 Preston Sturges original, but the 1984 remake of Unfaithfully Yours remains watchable thanks to a terrific cast, led by the late Dudley Moore, in one of his most inspired comic turns.
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Moore steps into Rex Harrison's shoes playing Claude Eastman, a symphony conductor who is fueled with enough circumstantial evidence to suspect that his beautiful wife (Natassja Kinski), who is half his age, is having an affair with a sexy violinist (Armand Assante).
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Preston Sturges' original screenplay had a lot more subtlety in bringing this story of a man's obsession with his wife's alleged infidelity to the 1980's. The main character is also more complex than he is here. Harrison's Alfred DeCarter was a sexist jerk whose paranoia regarding his wife is revealed almost immediately, before any evidence even appears that might make her an adulterer. In this version, the sexist aspect of the character is gone and he is blissfully happy with his wife until a private eye reveals what he learned (a private eye Claude didn't even hire) about the alleged adulteress. The fantasies of the conductor go from three in the original film to just one here.
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The direction by Howard Zeiff (Private Benjamin) and Moore's affinity for physical comedy help the story avoid a saccharine quality that the script provides, a lot safer than Sturges' brilliant original, which left more to the audience imagination, especially whether or not the young wife is really cheating.
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Similar to Rex Harrison's brilliance in the original film, Moore is the best thing about this remake, providing a rich performance that reminded me a lot of Moore's George Webber in 10, another Moore character who allows obsession to cloud logic and trust and almost destroy his marriage. Another thing that really worked for me with the Moore casting is the fact that Moore was an accomplished musician in real life and it gave a real authenticity to his conducting and piano scenes. The dueling violinists scene in the Hungarian restaurant was hysterical.
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Zeiff and Moore work well with a terrific cast. Kinski is breathtakingly beautiful as Daniella, but why make the character Italian when the actress is Russian? Why not just make her Russian? Albert Brooks, Richard B. Schull, and especially Richard Libertini also make the most of their screentime. Moore is terrific and the laughs are there, but it definitely pales next to the 1948 classic, primarily because of a screenplay that's a little too safe. 3

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Georgetown
Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz made his feature debut as a director with 2019's Georgetown, a slightly tongue in cheek look at a real-life murder case that director Waltz almost seems to be making light of, but still makes it worth a look because of his breathtaking performance in the starring role.
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Waltz plays Ulrich Mott, an ambitious social climber and con man in his 50's who has been arrested for the murder of his 90 year old wife, a wealthy Georgetown socialite named Elsa Breht (Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave). The story then returns to the beginning of his relationship with Elsa, which her daughter, Amanda (Annette Bening) was wary of from the beginning, but her warnings to her mother seem to fall on deaf ears.
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Screenwriter David Auburn (Proof) has constructed an elaborate murder mystery based on real events that is centered around a fascinating and repulsive central character that demands viewer attention. This Mott is a greedy, opportunistic, and repugnant human being who is using his wife's wealth and position to elevate himself among Washington DC's movers and shakers and abusing his elderly wife in the process. The man's mental faculties also come into the story as Mott claims to be a Brigadier General in Iraq responsible for many of the military strategies forged by that country. We are a little taken back (but not too much) when we learn during the trial that the certificate documenting his military title was printed from a website called Quality Certificates.com.
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Waltz' direction is overly-stylized with often dizzying camerawork and probably had some input on Auburn's screenplay as well, because this film is extremely protective of Mott, even though it really shouldn't be. There is no doubt that Mott is guilty from the minute he returns to the house after the body is discovered. Waltz also allows the Elsa Breht character to look pretty foolish, manipulated and lied to over and over again, but for some reason, she keeps taking him back into her life. Unfortunately, a return to the night of the murder during the final act doesn't deliver what it should.
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Despite the problems with the story and the way it is told, Christoph Waltz' performance is endlessly fascinating and reminds us why the actor won two Oscars in three years. Redgrave is appropriately frail and heartbreaking as Elsa, and Bening offers one of her iciest turns as Elsa's daughters. The presentation of a real life tragedy like this one should have been a little more straight-faced, but Waltz' powerhouse performance still makes it worth a look. 3

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Long Day's Journey into Night (1962)
The often lyrical writing of Pulitzer and Nobel prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill and the powerhouse performance of the legendary Katharine Hepburn are the primary selling points of the 1962 film version of O'Neill's most famous work Long Day's Journey Into Night, a talky and tragic cinematic rendering of a story that was really meant to remain onstage, following one family's tale of addiction and dysfunction that loses focus at times, but remains watchable due to the deeply personal feel of O'Neill's writing and a splendid ensemble cast committed to O'Neill's tragic vision.
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It's the summer of 1912 when the audience is brought to the summer coastal home of the Tyrone family. James (Ralph Richardson) is a retired actor, heavy drinker, and renowned tightwad married to Mary (Hepburn), a morphine addict. James and Mary have two sons: Jamie (Jason Robards) is a former actor who destroyed his career with alcohol and younger son, Edmund (Dean Stockwell) is the pampered family pet who is dying of a lung disease called consumption.
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O'Neill's play premiered on Broadway in 1957 and ran for over a year, with Robards being the only cast member being allowed to reprise his role in this movie. It's important to know that this story originated onstage because O'Neill always wrote for the sage and this piece is no exception and as powerful as this film version is, I can imagine that it pales next to seeing it onstage. I've mentioned in a lot of reviews how pieces that began onstage never lose their stage origins when being transferred to film and this is a prime example, but it works in this case for the most part.
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The story of the Tyrone family is one of the most delicately-crafted looks at addiction I have seen. The panic in the men's eyes whenever they learn Mary has gone upstairs by herself. It doesn't take long for the viewer to figure out what's going on with Mary, especially due to the way the story also nails another aspect of addiction called enabling. As panicked and terrified of what is happening to Mary, Mary is rarely directly confronted about what's happening to her, is in complete denial about it, and the family seems to to have settled into complete powerlessness.
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The screenplay could have been trimmed a bit because I think the film is a longer than it need be. Around the halfway point, the characters begin doing a lot of pontificating about the past that seemed more like exposition that should have come at the beginning of the film. Research revealed that O'Neill fought having the play published for a long time and I have a feeling this was because of the Mary Tyrone character, whom I suspect is based on O'Neill's own mother, the only viable explanation for the overwhelming protection the character is provided. I was unable to confirm that O'Neill actually adapted the play for the screen, which I found baffling.
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Hepburn gives, arguably the finest performance of her career as the drug-addicted Mary Tyrone, earning Hepburn her 9th Best Actress nomination, the only nomination the film received. Director Sidney Lumet also pulled a strong performance from Jason Robards as Jamie and the performance of his career as Edmund from Dean Stockwell. Exquisite black and white photography and a gorgeous but minimal piano score are the finishing touches of this loving adaption of a stage classic, that has been remade several times, but I seriously doubt if they touch this one. 4

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Welcome Matt
Despite a star-making performance from the leading man playing a likable character, the 2021 black comedy Welcome Matt frustrates and aggravates the viewer for the majority of the running time due to an all over the place screenplay that takes way too long to reveal a major plot point and when said reveal finally comes, it doesn't really make sense.
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This is the story of Matt, a young filmmaker who has written and directed a movie called LIFE'S A BEACH that is a huge success. The story flashes forward almost two years where it's revealed that Matt has become an agoraphobic whose inability to leave the house after a trauma has caused his girlfriend to dump him, come close to being evicted from his home, and can't get anyone aboard with his idea to make a movie without leaving the house. Things start to look up for Matt when major buzz starts about him making LIFE'S A BEACH 2 and a pretty therapist is hired by his mom to help him with his condition that he's completely in denial about.
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I'm not exactly sure where producer, director, and writer Leon Pierce Jr went here, but the basic premise was troubling for me. The last movie I saw about an agoraphobe was 1995's Copycat, which found Sigourney Weaver as the agoraphobe and this is a sad and frightening condition that I found to be a troubling canvas for a black comedy. I don't think there's anything funny about the inability to leave the house and had a difficult time getting behind a film trying to make light of the situation, no matter how far Pierce has his tongue tucked in his cheek.
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Even though I originally described this film as a black comedy, the film seems to make jarring changes from comedy to drama that are often unmotivated and difficult for the viewer to keep up with. Characters like a psycho actor who wants to murder Matt and a pot smoking ex-stand up played by Deon Cole (Black-ish) just seem to pad the running time. The most aggravating part of the story is when Matt's trauma is finally revealed, we learn that the trauma occurred during his graduation instead of after making LIFE'S A BEACH, which didn't make sense to me.
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Former child star Tahj Mowry, who began his career on TV series like Sister, Sister (which starred his real life twin sisters) and Smart Guy is quite charming as Matt but the story is so nonsensical the film is really hard to latch onto. 2

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Alexander's Ragtime Band
Twentieth Century Fox gave MGM a run for their money with a lavish and entertaining musical from 1938 called Alexander's Ragtime Band, another cinematic salute to the music of Irving Berlin that is a seamless combination of a show business story and star-crossed romance that was just the kind of escapist entertainment moviegoers were looking for in the 30's.
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The film opens in 1915 San Francisco where we meet Roger Grant (Tyrone Power), a classically trained violinist who impulsively decides to quit classical music, change his name to Alexander and form his own ragtime band. It's not long before Alexander falls for the band's lead singer, Stella (Alice Faye), who has also caught the eye of the band's keyboard player, Charlie (Don Ameche). The trio becomes separated when Stella is offered the lead in a Broadway show and Alexander enlists in the army.
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This surprisingly entertaining musical works thanks to a predictable but still engaging story where we see where it's going about 15 minutes in, but the characters are so colorful and the musical numbers are so much fun, that we don't care that the requisite happy ending is not realized until the final scene.
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This film was my first exposure to the first of the "Fox Blondes", Alice Faye, the platinum blonde with those big soulful eyes and the throaty voice who the camera absolutely adores. She made the perfect apex of the romantic triangle, made even more appealing by the character's honesty about her having feelings for both men. An added pleasure was the appearance of future Broadway icon Ethel Merman playing the new lead singer of Alexander's band, who gets to shine as the ultimate interpreter of Irving Berlin.
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The film is jam-packed with classic and lesser known Berlin songs like "He's a Rag Picker", "Now It Can Be Told", "In My Harem" and "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam". Ameche's version of "Easter Parade" was a charmer and loved Merman's take on "Blue Skies", "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody", and "Pack Up Your Sins". Also loved Jack Haley's take on "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning". Haley would make cinema history the following year when he would replace Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Woodsman in The Wizard of Oz.
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Henry King's direction shows great attention to production values and knows what a musical looks like, further documented 18 years later when he directed the film version of Carousel. Tyrone Power was a little stiff as Alexander, but Don Ameche and his 145 teeth were utterly charming as Charlie and had wonderful chemistry with Faye. Loved Charlie's breakup scene with Stella, one of my favorite scenes in the film. Musical lovers will find a lot to like here. 3.5

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Idiocracy
Mike Judge, the creative force behind the cult classic Office Space is not nearly as successful with a silly 2006 comedy called Idiocracy, a big budget time travel comedy that starts off promisingly but just gets dumber and dumber as the film progresses.
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The film opens in the year 2005 where it's revealed that the US military is working on a hibernation project where they plan to freeze someone from the present and send them to the future where they will thaw and learn about the future. An army private (Luke Wilson) and a hooker (Maya Rudolph) are chosen to participate in the project and find themselves transported to the year 2505, where people have lost all intelligence and Wilson's Joe now finds himself the smartest person on the planet, which ends up getting him jailed almost immediately but finding possible redemption with his wild theory that water will make plants grow.
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As the film opens, memories of a classic Woody Allen comedy called Sleeper came to mind which found Woody's character being transformed to the year 2173 and getting in lots of trouble because of earth's advances in science, the arts, and the economy. The premise here is basically the same, but the advances are losses here, as mankind has appeared to lost all forms of intelligence and research for a better planet. In this film, we are introduced to an America that has taken "United States" out of their title, where a latte at Starbucks means a lot more than coffee, and the only use for water is in toilets. These Americans still love money though.
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It's an interesting variation of Woody's concept here, but it seems to me to be true to the concept, upon his arrival in 2505, if Joe is the smartest person on the planet, shouldn't he be almost immediately running the country? Instead he's treated like a Joan of Arc heretic who these futuristic Americans feel has been sent here to destroy them. On the other hand, the hooker resumes the same life she was living in 2005 and finds a better life than she ever had in 2005. Huh?
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The movie had me on board until we learned that the year's most popular movie in 2505 was called "Ass" and that it won eight Oscars. From there, the movie begins to make less sense leading to an explosive finale in a demolition derby setting that made little or no sense. The ending does get where it should have been at the beginning but it takes way too long to get there. Luke Wilson's sincere performance in the title role is a charmer though and also liked Dax Shepherd as Frito and Terry Crews as the POTUS, but the laughs don't last for the entire economic running time. 2.5

[doubledenim]

Cruella
Disney knocks it out of the park with 2021's Cruella, a handsomely mounted, live-action re-imagining of one of its most famous animated characters, that rivets from start to finish thanks to spectacular production values, meticulously detailed direction, and a pair of dazzling performances from two Oscar winning actresses named Emma.
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The villainess from the classic Disney animated feature 101 Dalmatians is given a three dimensional re-imaging that follows a young girl named Estella from her troubled childhood to a period of petty thievery that eventually leads to a a job working for a legendary fashion designer named The Baroness with whom a connection to the past and a present rivalry are established
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First of all, it's not necessary to have seen any of the Dalmatians movies to appreciate what is happening here. In the style of Joaquin Phoneix's Joker, the character has been given a new backstory through a complex and sophisticated screenplay that immediately establishes sympathy for a character traditionally revered as a villainess and does it with such style and wit that we can't help but love her. Pitting the character against an antagonist who is a lot like herself fascinates throughout. Both Estella and the Baroness are given ultra clever dialogue that provides insight into them. I loved when the Baroness says "I'm intrigued...that never happens." The relationship between Estella and the Baroness initially resembles the relationship between Andy and Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada, but morphs into something so richer. I also loved that Estella and Cruella thinks of herself as two different people.
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Director Craig Gillepsie (I, Tonya) takes his time, perhaps just a tad too much time, allowing the story to unfold and probably could have been a little more economic in the mounting of exposition, giving the film a slow start, but once Estella meets the Baroness, the
story fires on all cylinders, thanks to Oscar-worthy camerawork, editing, costumes, and allowing the camera to often telegraph character emotion and development.
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Emma Stone gives the performance of her career as Cruella, easily trumping her Oscar-winning performance in La La Land and Emma Thompson is a crisp and caustic Baroness, a performance that should earn her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Also have to give shout outs to Walter Paul Hauser (Richard Jewell), Joel Fry, and Mark Strong in supporting roles and a music/song score that defies description. Intoxicating entertainment that I wasn't expecting. Bouquets all around. 4.5

Glad to hear someone so enthusiastic about this one! We thought that Paul Walter Hauser and Wink were the best part and I don’t know how I really feel about Emma Stone’s performance. Like I said in my blurb, this movie wasn’t made for me, so I can’t be too harsh.

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The Bobby Brown Story
2018's The Bobby Brown Story is a lavishly produced TV movie, originally broadcast on BET in two parts, that chronicles the infamous R&B singer's life from his troubled childhood through his stormy marriage to Whitney Houston, and the tragic death of his daughter Bobbi Kristina. The film suffers from a one-sided, slightly melodramatic screenplay, but there are some terrific performances and on a purely entertainment level, it totally works.
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It's so hard to be objective about this film because most of us saw Bobby's life through the media which has allowed most people to form strong opinions about the man which, for the most part, are the polar opposite of the Bobby Brown presented in this film, making this film look kike a sanitized version of Brown's life.
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The Bobby we are all familiar with first appears right after his breakup with New Edition, followed by his initial flashy success as a solo performer, while juggling relationships with two other women, with which he had children. But it's his relationship with Whitney Houston, which began at an awards show, that began the downward spiral of Bobby's career and life and this is where the movie becomes troubling for me.
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Just like the 2015 TV movie Whitney, this movie presents Bobby as this victim who was corrupted and manipulated by the evil Whitney Houston and I just don't believe this is the way things happened. According to this film, the first time Bobby saw Whitney do cocaine was on their wedding. After spending a couple of years in jail, Whitney picks him up in her limo and immediately offers him cocaine. Not to mention the fact that Whitney still marries the man when he gets another woman pregnant the same time he gets her pregnant.
Seriously?
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The odd thing was that while watching this film, I kept thinking that if this had been a fictional story about a fictional entertainer, it was grandly entertaining and riveting from start to finish. Director Kiel Adrien Scott displays a real flair for high octane show business drama, but as hard as I tried, I just couldn't reconcile this portrait of Bobby Brown as a tortured victim.
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The film does feature some terrific performances though, led by Woody McClain, who commands the screen in the title role and Gabrielle Dennis, offering a flashy turn as Whitney Houston. The actors don't physically resemble their real life counterparts but they understood Bobby and Whitney and completed committed to these roles. They get impressive support from Mekhi Phifer as Bobby's brother and manager, Alyssa Goss as Bobby's pre and post Whitney girlfriend Alicia, and Sandi McGee as Bobby's mother. I didn't believe everything that I was seeing, but I was thoroughly entertained and couldn't take my eyes off the screen. 3.5

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The Woman in the Window (2021)
The direction is slick and inventive and it's extremely well acted, but it's the swiss cheese screenplay for 2021's The Woman in the Window that keeps the psychological thriller from being the completely satisfying film experience it should have been.
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The film stars Amy Adams as Anna Fox, a child psychologist and agoraphobe who is separated from her family and living alone in a Manhattan brownstone with a downstairs tenant named David. One night while watching the brownstone across the street, she observes a woman she met a few days ago (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) being murdered and when she reports what she saw, the police and the woman's husband (Oscar winner Gary Oldman) inform her that another woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the woman who Anna thought she saw murdered.
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This film starts off interestingly enough, sort of contemporary updating of Hitchcock's Rear Window, but Tracy Letts' screenplay splits off in so many different directions that we're really never sure exactly what we've seen. Characters are murdered without motive or explanation like a nightmare and eventually leads to a bloody finale where the culprit is the last person we expect. It would have made more sense for the story to lead to an "And then I woke up" scene to explain all the bizarre directions the story goes.
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Director Joe Wright, who directed Goldman to an Oscar in The Darkest Hour, brings a slickness and inventiveness to his direction that almost makes the viewer forget how the story makes little or no sense. His photography is head-spinning and his presentation of the supporting characters set up what eventually turn out to be nonsensical red herrings that just make the screenplay make sense. As confusing as the story is, the film is a visual feast, which can only be credited to Wright.
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Wright gets solid performances from a really interesting cast too. Adams is splendid, as usual, and Oldman has a couple of bone-chilling moments that make his thankless role seem not so much. Must also give a shout out to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn's son, Wyatt Russell, who lights up the screen as Anna's tenant David. Wright and his cast work very hard at making this work, but the screenplay eventually defeats them. 2.5

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Class (1983)
One of the earliest entries of the teen comedies that dominated 1980's cinema was a breezy campus comedy called Class that doesn't have a lot of re-watch appeal due to its predictability but does have a little more substance than a lot of the teen comedies of the period.
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This is the story of Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy, in his film debut), a high school freshman who has just been accepted into a fictional prep school outside Chicago called Vernon Academy where, after a shaky start, develops a solid relationship with his roommate, Skip (Rob Lowe), the big stud on campus. When Jonathan is banned from a school dance, Skip sends Jonathan to a bar in downtown Chicago where Jonathan meets a beautiful older woman named Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset). A one night stand between the two in an elevator leads to a brief affair that comes to an abrupt end when it's revealed exactly who Ellen is.
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The screenplay by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt is crafted more carefully than the average teen comedy because it takes its time establishing the relationship between Jonathan and Skip, making the reveal of exactly who Ellen is much richer. Unfortunately, said reveal is the basis of the film's appeal, which isn't nearly as effective in re-watch mode. Kouf and Greenwalt also set up a subplot in an early scene with Skip and Jonathan that seems to be superfluous at the time it happens but it is addressed during the final act. I was also impressed with the fact that the Ellen character was not just an aging tramp, but is revealed to have some serious emotional issues that the viewer doesn't see coming.
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The casting of the lead roles has a dash of originality to it. Rob Lowe was one of the biggest sex symbols of the 80's whose career in the 1980's was comparable to Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling today. Instead of playing on Lowe's sex appeal, the role of Skip relies a lot on Lowe's comic timing, starting the character off as the wisecracking best friend and it had to be as refreshing for Lowe as it is for the viewer
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Director Lewis John Carlino (The Great Santini) allows the story to unfold methodically without making the film three hours long. McCarthy makes an impressive film debut as young Jonathan and the chemistry he creates with the breathtaking Bisset is surprising. A few familiar faces show up along the way in small roles like John Cusack, Alan Ruck, Virginia Madsen, Casey Siemaszko, Anna Marie Horsford, Stuart Margolin and Oscar winner Cliff Robertson as Skip's dad. The film works a lot better if you've never seen it, but there is re-watch appeal for fans of McCarthy, Bisset, and Lowe. 3.5

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In the Heights
After the unprecedented success of Hamilton, it should come as no surprise that
Lin-Manuel Miranda's previous Broadway triumph should make it to the big screen. In the Heights is the exuberant and explosive musical celebration of dreams set on a sanitized canvas based on one of New York City' most turbulent neighborhoods. If you're not a fan of musicals or if you're looking for a realistic vision of Washington Heights, you might as well stop reading now.
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This 2021 musical extravaganza is a rowdy and rhythmic examination of the subject of dreams...dreams realized, dreams sacrificed, dreams adjusted, and dreams lost. The musical centers on the dreams of a tightly knit group of characters for whom Washington Heights has been their entire life. Usnavy is the young owner of a bodega who wants to buy a bar in the Dominican Republic; Nina has returned to the Heights after dropping out of Stanford because her father, the owner of a car rental business, can no longer afford the tuition or to pay her boyfriend Benny; Vanessa works in a beauty parlor but really wants to be a fashion designer and Sonny, Usnavy's cousin, wants to get from under the thumb of his drunken father, Gapo.
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It should be stated that this musical makes no bones about the fact that it is a musical and Miranda and his co-screenwriters have made little or no effort to bring any semblance of realism to these joyous proceedings. The infectious title song, which opens the film, is sung directly to the camera for the most part and the streets are filled with dancers, not cars or street vendors or police or drug dealers. Anyone familiar with Washington Heights knows that it's one of New York's most dangerous and crime-infested neighborhoods but you'll see none of that here. It's a musical.
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As with Hamilton, the score is an intricate blend of brassy Latino rhythms and contemporary hip-hop that Miranda has made his own personal form of musical expression and it works more effectively here than it did with Hamilton because the style of the music is a much more natural fit to the story and period here than it was with Hamilton. It's difficult to sit still for the pulsating rhythms of Miranda's score, greatly motivated by Christopher Scott's dazzling choreography, which is pure and unadulterated 2021. The other thing I loved about the dancing in this film is that not all of the dancers looked like starved ballerinas...the dancers in this movie were all shapes and sizes and not ashamed of it either.
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In addition to the title tune, the standout musical highlights include Usnavy and Vanessa's "It Won't be Long Now", "You Don't Say", the production number in the beauty parlor; "96000", a huge production number in a swimming pool centered on a lottery ticket, and "Piragua", performed by the snow cone vendor, played by Miranda himself. And just when we think we've seen it all, Benny and Nina perform "When You're Home", which becomes a lovely pas de deux on the side of an apartment building (yes you read that correctly).
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Director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) keeps this spectacle moving nicely, with a strong Oscar-worthy assist from film editor Myron Kerstien (not to mention, Miranda, who I'm sure had Chu's ear throughout production). Anthony Ramos, who was in Hamilton and played Lady GaGa's gay BFF in A Star is Born, lights up the screen in a sexy and charismatic performance as Usnavy and Corey Hawkins, who played Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton is a real charmer as Benny, creating real chemistry with Leslie Grace as Nina. Jimmy Smits plays Nina's father (and even gets to sing), and Daphne Rubin Vega, who created the role of Mimi in the original production of Rent makes the most of her thankless role as the beauty shop owner. For true movie musical lovers and for fans of Lin-Manuel Miranda, an unqualified home run and for my money, the Best Film of 2021 so far. 4.5

[Wyldesyde19]

Yes! I was waiting to see what you would think of it, and I found it just as enjoyable as you did.
Great film, great musical, and definitely the best film in the first 6 months so far.
It will definitely make its way to my end of year top films.

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The Petrified Forest (1936)
The rock solid performances of Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard reprising their Broadway roles definitely make the 1936 film version of The Petrified Forest, an effective blend of hostage drama and star-crossed romance worth your time..
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Based on a play by Robert Sherwood, this is the story of a notorious gangster named Duke Mantee (Bogart) who holds a disparate group of people hostage in a gas station/diner in the middle of the desert. The hostages include an intellectual drifter with a death wish named Alan Squier (Howard); a dreamy-eyed waitress named Gabrielle (Bette Davis) who hates her life and wants more than anything to get out of Arizona; a wealthy older couple named Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm and their chauffeur; the station's not so bright mechanic named Boze who loves Gabrielle, and Gabrielle's father and grandfather.
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Sherwood's play opened on Broadway in January of 1935 and closed in June because the film version was in theaters less than a year later. Director Archie Mayo doesn't put a lot of effort into making the film look less like a piece of theater and more like a movie. During the opening scenes, the sky in the background is clearly painted backdrops. The film may take place in the Arizona desert, but we can tell immediately that the filming of this piece never left Warner Brothers sound stages, but the story is so compelling that, as the film progresses, we really don't care.
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Even though the film is a hostage crime drama, what really makes the story special is the star-crossed romance between Alan and Gabrielle. I loved the way Alan is introduced in the film...broke and hitchhiking across the desert until his fateful meeting with Gaby, a true dreamer who thinks she's found a way out of her dead end existence with Alan, even though he really doesn't promise her anything. How a charming and intelligent man like Alan ended up in his position is never really addressed, but curiosity is piqued when it comes to light that Alan seems to want to die, despite Gabrielle pinning all her hopes of a new life on him. The relationship between Alan and Gabrielle is presented with such care that we're genuinely terrified for them with the arrival of Duke Mantee on the scene.
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And as for Duke Mantee, this seems to be the performance that was the genesis for Bogart's career as the ultimate cinematic tough guy. Bogart gives a genuine menace to his character more through the physicality of the character rather than the dialogue. Bette Davis gives the role of Gabrielle real substance, a role originated on Broadway by Peggy Conklin. Dick Foran was fun as Boze and there's also a real scene-stealing performance from Charley Grapewin as Gaby's grandfather, who considers Mantee a hero. Grapewin would become an important part of movie history a few years later when he would play Dorothy's Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz. The ending is a little rushed but for fans of Bogey, Davis, and Leslie Howard, a must-see. 4

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Fatherhood
Kevin Hart gets the chance to display some genuine acting chops in 2021's Fatherhood, a sweet-natured and occasionally moving family comedy-drama where the first half of the film works a lot better than the second.
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Hart plays Matt, a man who finds himself suddenly thrust into the world of single parenthood when his wife dies the day after she gives birth to their daughter. We then have to watch Matt not only struggle with the raising a child alone, but fending off his in-laws, his mother-in-law in particular, who wants to take Matt's daughter from him because she believes him to be incapable of raising a child.
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Director and co-screenplay Paul Weitz, who directed a film I loved several years ago called In Good Company has mounted a story that is not the first we've had regarding being a single parent but directly confronts aspects of the struggle that have rarely been addressed prior to this. The story engages us completely from the beginning as Matt makes it clear that he is determined to raise this child alone and also makes it clear that he has no idea how to do it. We feel his frustration when he can't get the baby to stop crying and seeks help from a Mommy and Me group. We also feel him when he has to take the baby to work and has to do a presentation and cradle the baby simultaneously. Then there's his mother-in-law, whose only offer of support is to take the baby from Matt and raise her herself.
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Unfortunately, at the halfway point of the film, the story skips a few years to the point where Maddie, Matt's daughter, is beginning school and the film begins to degenerate into a lot of melodrama and the more conventional type of scenes that we're accustomed to. As a matter of fact, there's a scene where Maddie falls off a jungle gym that is just a little too similar to the jungle gym fall in Kramer VS Kramer not to notice. The scenes of Matt trying to start a new romance and dealing with Maddie's initial objection also had a real feeling of "been there, done that." And they almost lost me when Matt agreed to let Maddie live with her grandparents for awhile, which seemed to negate the entire first half of the fim.
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They didn't lose me though because Kevin Hart's winning performance kept me completely invested in the proceedings, making me completely care about the character. The empathy felt for the character is definitely stronger in the first half of the film as things become a little pat and convenient in the second half. Hart proved that he is more than pratfalls, mugging, and adult language and might be opening up a new direction for his movie career.
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Hart gets solid support from Alfre Woodard and Frankie Faison as his in-laws, Anthony Corrigan and Lil Rel Howery as his BFFS, and Paul Reiser as his boss. Melody Hurd also lit up the screen as young Maddie. This film could have been something really incredible, but it's still more than watchable, thanks to Kevin Hart. 3.5

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On an Island with You
The MGM dream factory had one of its lesser offerings with 1948's On an Island With You, a pleasant, if unremarkable musical offering that will only appeal to hardcore musical fans.
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The film stars Peter Lawford as a Navy pilot who is selected to be the technical advisor for a movie filming in the South Pacific titled "On an Island with You" Lawford is thrown for a loop when he learns the film stars Rosalind Rennolds (Esther Williams).

Lawford's Larry Kingsley met Rennolds several years ago when he joined her onstage during a USO tour and has never forgotten her. He is determined to dance with her, despite the fact that she is engaged to her co-star Ricardo Montez (Ricardo Montalban).
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When a scene in the movie requires Rosalind to get on a plane and be flown off, Larry is the chosen as the pilot and decides to seize the opportunity by flying her to another island where they get stranded overnight, causing major problems for Larry and Roz. Meanwhile another co-star in the film, Yvonne (Cyd Charisse) sets her cap on Ricardo.
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The screenwriters definitely deserve a little credit for the spark of originality involved in this "movie within a movie", though it is a little lazy in its legitimizing reasons to keep MGM's Aqua Queen in the water. Other than taking bets on how the story is going to get Esther in the water, the film offers one of the most predictable plots ever and we see where it's going in, but now that I think about it, was there any MGM musical where this wasn't the case?
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The majority of the humor in the film is left to the iconic Jimmy Durante, who is also given three musical numbers. Montalban and Charisse turn out to be a competent dance team, once on a nightclub dance floor and later in an elaborate ballet that reminded me of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" in Words and Music. Charisse also headlines a massive Pagan production number and Williams' final water ballet is spectacular as always.
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Peter Lawford makes a charming leading man, but rarely has Williams been more annoying whenever she got out of the water and spoke, but it was early in her career. I also found her makeup very distracting in this movie. I guess they wanted to remind us that she was in the South Pacific and that she was tan, but there are several shots in the film where she looks like she's in black face. This film also offered my first peek at a young actress named Kathryn Beaumont, who would make cinema history a couple of years later when she provided the voice for title character in the 1951 Disney classic Alice in Wonderland. We've seen better from MGM, but Durante and Charisse make it worth a look. 2.5

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Tina
She's among a handful of vocalists...Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Freddy Mercury, Rod Stewart...a voice that doesn't sound like anyone else. She was known as the woman who taught Jagger how to dance. The late John Denver once introduced her on the Grammy Awards as the woman who taught all other women how to walk in high heels. The unprecedented life and career of rock and roll legend Tina Turner is lovingly brought to the screen in a 2021 documentary called Tina.
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This HBO film produces facts coming from the lips of the lady herself, effectively blended with people who were part of her life, and the expected materials that documentaries implement, but one thing that co-directors and co-screenwriters Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin do is they don't present Tina's story in chronological order. The story of the 82 year old legend is chronicled pretty thoroughly but not with the formality of most celebrity documentaries, which demands attention from the viewer, which is not hard to give due to the fascinating subject.
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Needless to say that the meat of the documentary focuses on Tina's stormy relationship with Ike Turner, who passed away in 1991. Ike and Tina's story was previously brought to the screen in 1993 as What's Love Got to Do with it which earned its stars, Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne Oscar nominations. Loved learning here that the release of the film was not exactly a cathartic experience for Turner. This film features a clip of a press conference Tina did with Bassett shortly after the release of the film where she told the press straight out that she hadn't seen the film yet.
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The film not only documents the Svengali grip that Ike had on Tina, but Ike's complete denial about it, long after their marriage ended. I was surprised to learn when Phil Spector wanted to sign Tina to record without Ike actually happened before Ike and Tina recorded "Proud Mary". Watch the press interview where Tina sits silently while Ike offers his theory as to why the Phil Spector record failed. It's as telling about Ike as is his reply when he is asked directly about his abuse of Tina.
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My favorite parts of the film were the stories of Ike and Tina's first move to Hollywood where the stories were accompanied with shots of the empty house now. Shots of the bedroom were chilling and heartbreaking while Tina's son Craig recalled an incident where Ike threw hot coffee on his mother. Also loved the whole story of how Tina had to be roped into recording the biggest hit of her career "What's Love Got to do with It". Was fascinated by the shots of some British bubble gum group who recorded it first with no success.
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Commentary is provided by, among others, Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, Roger Davies, who managed Tina from 1979 to 2000, a former Ike and Tina backup singer named Le'Jeune Fletcher, and Tina's current husband Erwin Bach. A riveting and heartbreaking tribute to a rock and roll legend. 5

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The Color Purple
Steven Spielberg shocked Hollywood when he decided to bring The Color Purple to the screen in 1985 and what resulted was a controversial and emotionally charged epic spanning almost 30 years that riveted this reviewer to the screen thanks to a richly complex screenplay carefully crafted for the screen by Spielberg's uncanny directorial eye, not to mention two of the most impressive film debuts in cinema history.
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Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker (which I never read), the primary story here revolves around Celie Walker, a young black girl at the turn of the century who has given birth to two children before her 15th birthday (fathered by her father), who sells her to a sexist beast who Celie refers to as "Mister", who treats her as a slave and prostitute. Mister and Celie's misery becomes more complicated with the arrival of Shug Avery, a trampy nightclub entertainer who Mister has loved for years. Then there's the story of Sophia, the strong-willed wife of Mister's wimpy son Harpo, who refuses to let Harpo treat her the way Mister treats Celie, sending her on an equally emotional journey as well.
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On the surface, this story looks like the last thing that the director of some of our biggest box-office champions should tackle and something tells me this is exactly why Spielberg wanted to do it. It's not just the idea of a white director mounting a story with all black characters, but shining a light on a lot of unpleasant subject matter for a movie that have been addressed before but rarely with the candor they are here. Incest, lesbianism, rape, and, domestic abuse are given a canvas unlike anything I have ever seen before, thanks to Menno Meyjes rich adaptation of Walker's novel that doesn't soft soap anything it brings up, blends different stories to maximum effect and just when we think a plot thread has been forgotten about, it is sewn up.
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Spielberg's care about this story is evident in every frame. Loved that scene when Mister is on the horse attempting to rape Nettie and that scene at the dinner table at the climax of the film where Celie finally declares her independence is glorious.
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This masterpiece was nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and, shockingly, didn't win a single statue...and Spielberg wasn't even nominated. Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey both received Oscar nominations for their powerhouse film debuts as Celie and Sophia, respectively and Danny Glover turns in the performance of his career as the detestable Mister. Also loved Desreta Jackson as a teenage Celie. Spielberg took a story that was probably believed impossible to film and created a breathtaking film that had me on the verge of tears for most of the running time. Adapted into a Broadway musical in 2005. 4.5

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The Week of
Despite the presence of Adam Sandler and Chris Rock in the starring roles, 2018's The Week Of doesn't have nearly enough laughs to legitimize its obscenely long running time.
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Sandler plays Kenny Lustig, a Long Island contractor who is going broke and out of his mind trying to pay for the perfect wedding for his daughter to the son of a wealthy California doctor played by Rock. The film chronicles the week of the wedding which finds Kenny's home jammed to the rafters with relatives, including an 86 year old uncle named Seymour who lost his legs to diabetes, a recovering drug addict teetering on the edge, and a hotel that he built to house some of the groom's relatives, that is systematically falling apart.
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Director and co-screenwriter Robert Smigel, a former SNL writer who also makes a cameo in the film as an ER doctor co-wrote the script with Sandler, which is a plus because Smigel has a lot of history with Sandler and Rock, but he lets a potentially funny story get away from him. The story finds Sandler and Rock facing off because Rock's character keeps trying to bail Kenny out, offering to pay for most of the wedding but it's very important to Kenny that he do this himself.
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And this is the one thing in this film that works, this Kenny Lustig character. After a long career dependent on this manic man child characterization that Sandler put some variations on for dozens of movies during the last 25 years, he and Smigel finally give Sandler a chance to play an actual adult in a comedic setting, unlike the not so funny goings-on in Uncut Gems and it really works. Sandler has rarely been so sweet and likable onscreen and it is his character that is the heart of this film and keeps the viewer invested, despite the fact that the film seems to go on forever.
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Most of the supporting characters are annoying and a lot of the stuff that goes on here isn't nearly as funny as Smigel and Sandler think it is. There is a scene at a baseball game featuring Kenny's youngest son that is a total waste of time, not to mention the scene where Sandler, his wife (Rachel Dratch), and his cousin (Steve Buscemi) fill the mayor's office with bats (don't ask). I have to admit that every thing involving the 86 year odl guy with no legs was gold. Fans of Sandler and Rock will want to take a look, even if it is only sporadically funny and about 40 minutes too long. 2.5

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The Flim Flam Man
Films like The Sting and Smokey and the Bandit owe a lot to 1967's The Flim Flam Man, a rowdy and whimsical action comedy that still remains watchable after all these years thanks to a sometimes logic-defying story, a dazzling change of pace performance from its star, and a superb supporting cast of veterans.
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George C. Scott, as always, commands the screen as Mordecai Jones, a veteran con man who hooks up with a young army deserter named Curley (Michael Sarrazin) and begins cheating and stealing from the residents of a small rural area, which eventually puts the two of them on the road with a sheriff on their tail which doesn't stop Curley from pursuing a romance with a young sexpot (Sue Lyon) from whom he and Mordecai stole a car.
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William Rose, who won an Oscar the same year for his screenplay to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, has given us a screenplay (based on a novel by Guy Owen) that brings together two very likable characters together and is a little too protective of them, allowing them to get away with a lot more than they would have if this film had been made during the new millenium. The close calls that Mordecai and Curley experience during the running time are somewhat similar to a Warner Brothers cartoon, with the same kind of action that one expects from a cartoon...the film contains a couple of beautifully mounted car chases that bring to mind the work of director/stunt man Hal Needham. If I had a quibble with the story, it didn't make sense to me that Curley puts himself and Mordecai in jeopardy by pursuing Lyon's character, who the authorities should have been watching from the moment her car was stolen.
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Director Irving Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) keeps things fast-paced if not necessarily realistic, perfectly balancing viable action sequences with the beautiful relationship that develops between Mordecai and Curley, which bends throughout the story but never breaks.
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Scott is wonderful in a delightful change of pace for the actor and Sarrazin impresses in one of his earliest roles as young Curley. The terrific supporting cast is rich with familiar faces like Harry Morgan, Jack Albertson, Strother Martin, Albert Salmi, Alice Ghostley, and Woodrow Parfrey. Jerry Goldsmith's bouncy music score is the icing on this entertaining cinematic cake that holds up beautifully. 4

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A Quiet Place Part II
Director and screenwriter John Krasinski has once again crafted an uncanny combination of unerring suspense and the immediate "Boo" as he returns to the Abbott family of Spring Creek for A Quiet Place Part II a spine-tingling sequel to the 2018 nail-biter that impresses by not going where those of us who saw the first film thought a sequel would go.
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As we reacquaint ourselves with the Abbotts in this 2020 sequel, we find Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and the baby Evelyn gave birth to at the end of the first film decide to leave their sanctuary and quickly learn there are other threats to their existence than the deadly creatures who hunt by sound that they met in the first film.
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Krasinski's screenplay immediately challenges the viewer because the viewer immediately assumes that the ending of the first film had to be some kind of mistake and that somehow the sequel would reveal Krasinki's character, Lee Abbott, wasn't really dead and we think we're getting exactly what we expected when Lee Abbott is actually the first character we see in this film in the same store where the Abbotts were seen scrounging at the opening of the film, but, refreshingly, we find we couldn't be more wrong and Krasinski cements his place as cinematic puppet master, forcing us yo go where he wants and not where we expect.
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As for Krasinski the director, he continues to hone his skills to a precise point where the story of this family and this continually evolving terror finds the viewer spending the majority of the running time jumping out of their chair or holding their breath. As he did in the first film, Krasinski heightens the terror by keeping the family apart physically and tops it off b bringing a stranger into the mix (Cillian Murphy). I also loved that Krasinski did here was equally divide the story between these defiant creatures whose path of destruction knows no rhyme or reason and a delicate overview of the aftermath of their destruction. Loved that shot of the camera following Regan walking by the train station and seeing all of the empty high heels on the platform or Marcus walking through the warehouse and seeing all of the empty coveralls and hardhats. Krasinski gives us a viable story that provides in-your-face scares, but allows a lot of the scares to come from the viewer's imagination.
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Because of the story, I love the fact that a lot of dialogue is whispered and demands complete attention from the viewer and just when we've settled into whisper mode, the story goes attack mode and has us jumping out of our collective chairs. The film is a technical marvel, with standout cinematography, music, and, of course, sound. Krasinski has created a sequel as compelling as the original. 4

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Lillian Russell
Despite slightly leaden direction and an overstuffed screenplay, the 1940 musical biopic Lillian Russell is still worth a look thanks to elaborate production values and a terrific cast, led by the enchanting Alice Faye in the tile role.
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The film is a lovingly detailed look at the life of the legendary theater singer from her birth during the height of the suffragette movement through several romances, stardom, marriage, the birth of a child, and the resolution of a star-crossed romance.
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Like the screenplay for most biopics of the 40's and 50's, I'm pretty sure William Anthony Maguire's screenplay most likely plays fast and loose with the facts of Lillian Russell's life, but does follow the classical musical comedy route even though the route is a little more leisurely than it needs be. The story actually begins before Russell's birth where it is drilled into the viewer's head that her father wanted a boy and not a girl, not to mention a little too much attention paid to Russell's mother's alleged role in the battle to get women the vote. The attention paid to these details would have been all right if they had become relevant later on, but they don't so they really do nothing more than pad the running time.
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There are adult touches to the story that make for high drama and mixed emotions. It's a little convenient the way every male character in the film is mysteriously drawn under Lillian's spell, not to mention her propensity for accepting expensive baubles sent to her backstage from perfect strangers. Though Lillian is not presented as a fool, evidenced in her dealings with Diamond Jim Brady, who apparently thought he could buy Lillian's affections.
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Twentieth Century Fox put a lot of money in bringing this lavish tale to the screen, though I have to wonder why it was filmed in black and white. The film actually received its only Oscar nomination for art direction. The costumes are absolutely stunning and it's a shame that the award category didn't come into existence for another nine years.
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Alice Faye lights up the screen in the title role, proving worthy of all the money and attention put into this production and gets solid support from Henry Fonda as the reporter whose star-crossed romance anchors the story and Don Ameche, wonderful as the composer who Lillian marries and has a baby with. Also loved the scene-stealing performances of Edward Arnold as Diamond Jim Brady and Helen Westley as Lillian's grandmother. It's about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be and it's probably not an accurate representation of Lillian Russell's life and career, but for a Fox musical, there is definite entertainment value and after my second exposure to her, I'm learning that Alice Faye is always worth watching. 3

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Four Good Days
The dazzling performances of Glenn Close and Mila Kunis notwithstanding, 2020's Four Good Days, an emotionally manipulative drama about addiction and its effects on family, is only about two thirds of a great movie, because of the completely unbelievable detour the final third of the story takes, leading to over-the-top melodramatics and an ending that's just way too convenient to be believable.
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Kunis plays Molly Wheeler, a heroine addict who has hit bottom after ten years and shows up on the doorstep of her mother, Deb (Close), who won't even let her daughter in the house. Deb agrees to drive Molly to a 15th attempt at rehab where she is offered the opportunity to receive an injection that will prevent heroine from entering her body. She can't receive the injection until she's been clean for four days, but cannot stay at the rehab facility. Her mother reluctantly agrees to let her return home for the four days, on the condition that she stays in the garage.
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Director and co-screenwriter Rodrigo García is to be applauded for a timely story rich with good intentions that brilliantly establishes Molly's backstory without the use of flashback. We see how painful it is for Deb to not even let her daughter in the house to take a shower. We see the nervous tension that pervades a brief reunion with Molly's children and ex-husband. We see Deb privately taking partial blame for what her daughter's life has become. We get to see so much of the past as the story only movers forward. We see Molly's stepfather making sure Deb knows what she's doing is right.
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This story had me completely until the final third of the film when Molly wants Deb to take her to look for a fellow addict who she's worried about. Addicts are among the most self-absorbed people on the planet and the last thing they're going to be thinking about with two days clean is what's going on with someone else. Though the story keeps us guessing about Molly's ambition to get clean, it offers no easy solutions, until a rushed ending where everything is wrapped up in a way too tidy bow.
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Glenn Close offers one of her richest performances as the tortured Deb, done the same year as Hillbilly Elegy, which earned her an 8th Oscar nomination, but this performance is far superior and might have won her that award. Kunis is a revelation as Molly, a performance devoid of glamour playing a character unlike anything she's ever done. It's the performances of these two actresses that almost make the problems with the story forgivable. Though anyone with any experience on either side of addiction will find something they can relate to here. 3.5

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The Godfather
An instant classic and the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1972, The Godfather is the sweeping and electrifying epic that set the gold standard for mob drama without ever utilizing the word "mob" or "mafia". At its core, what Francis Ford Coppola has done here is crafted an effectively layered look at the varied definitions of the word "family."
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The film opens at what is considered a classic family event...the wedding of the daughter of Vito Corleone, the dying patriarch of a crime dynasty whose power, reach, influence, and respect knows no bounds and what happens when an attempt on Vito's life motivates him to gradually hand over control of his empire to his reluctant son, Michael, who has never had the same kind of interest in the business as his hot-headed brother, Sonny, his adopted brother Tom, who serves as the organization's lawyer, and the weak-willed Fredo, who wants more than anything to have an important role in the running of his father's organization, but has neither the skill nor the stomach.
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The Oscar-winning screenplay by Coppola and Maria Puzo, who wrote the book the film is based on, seamlessly weaves several different stories involving the family's sometimes very quiet way of wresting control of several different dramas, including a famous singer (a character allegedly based on Frank Sinatra), who seeks Vito's assistance in getting a role in a movie, fending off a rival family who want the Corleone's to expand their empire to the drug trade, an area that , surprisingly, Vito wants nothing to do with but Sonny does, and a dirty cop who has assaulted Michael and must be eliminated.
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Coppola displays an uncanny ability to use violence to greatest effect by not having the entire film be a blood bath. Even though the wedding of Vito's daughter, Connie is also utilized as an opportunity to gain favor from the Don, we are surprised when the first request of the Corleone influence in a matter is politely refused by Vito. Violence is not utilized for violence's sake and the violence in this film doesn't fill every frame of the film. We learn that violence is a final option for the Corleones when everything else has failed and when it comes down to that, they don't play...Sonny's bloody demise being a prime example. Of course, violence becomes the ultimate storytelling tool in the restaurant scene where Michael takes out the dirty cop and the drug kingpin, the stunning turning point of the film where the film stops being about Don Corleone and starts being about Michael.
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At the center of all the bloodshed is an almost Shakespeare-like look at a royal family and how the obvious choice to take over the throne is not a willing participant at first. Love when Michael and his new girlfriend, Kay arrive at the wedding and Kay starts asking him all these questions about the family business and Michael tries diplomatically to explain without really explaining. This scene is so beautifully written because it is the beginning of the reveal of how Michael is more like his father than any of his brothers.
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I also love the unerring detail that Coppola puts into the detail of the setting up of the restaurant assassination. It's so deft having all of these guys quietly putting their heads together to figure out how this has to be done, and then watch Michael execute it precisely as planned. Masterful storytelling that sends the film to a completely different level. Have to wonder how popular this film would have been if made now during this "Me too" area with the humiliating and abusive treatment of the female characters, especially Connie, the lovely bride of the opening scene, whose fairy tale wedding was a precursor to doom.
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The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, but people tend to forget that even though it did win Best Picture, it only won two other awards that night...for Coppola and Puzo's screenplay and Marlon Brando's second Oscar for Outstand Lead Actor, an award he would refuse. The big winner that night was Cabaret, which won eight awards that night, including Bob Fosse's shocking blindsiding of Coppola for Best Director.
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Brando commands the screen and revived his sagging career, for what is essentially a supporting role. He's top billed and won Best Actor because he was Marlon Brando. Robert Duvall and James Caan both received nominations for their roles as legal eagle Tom and hothead Sonny. There's also standout work from Richard Castellano, Al Lettieri, Diane Keaton as Kay, and a heartbreaking turn from John Cazale as Fredo, but for my money, Al Pacino owns this movie with his understated yet powerful Michael, a performance that earned him a supporting nomination, even though the role is clearly a lead. Despite a few roles prior to it, this is the one that made Pacino an official movie star and deservedly so. There have been many imitations and rip-offs, but they all pale next to this granddaddy of them all, where the primary credit has to go the enormously gifted Francis Ford Coppola. 4.5

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Unhinged (2020)
Unhinged is an outrageously over-the-top and illogical nail biter that does provide some sporadic scares and will definitely make you think twice the next time you think about flipping someone off in traffic.
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Rachel is a divorced single mom who is driving her son to school when she gets caught at a traffic light behind a guy and, because she's running late, honks her horn at him when the light turns green. What we know that Rachel doesn't is that we've just witnessed this man murder two people in their house and then burn the house to the ground. The man gets to confront Rachel directly and demands an apology from her that she refuses, she becomes the next target of this man's rage.
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Screenwriter Carl Ellsworth has given us a very scary story on the surface, but the motivation behind what happens isn't strong or made clear enough to justify what this dangerous psychopath puts Rachel and her family through. We learn that the man was fired from his job, but we never learn who the two people are that he murdered in the opening scene so it's hard to understand why he not only terrorizes this mother and son, strangers to him, not to mention several innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, including a police officer trying to help Rachel.
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Director Derrick Borte does keep the action moving at a nice clip, which was probably no accident. The lightning pace of the story doesn't allow the viewer too much time to think about what's going on because, if they do, they just won't buy the unspeakable terror this guy puts this innocent mother and son through. Not to mention the fact that there's no way that this guy would have gotten away with the carnage he does if this story had been done in a more realistic tone. There's a scene early on in a restaurant where the man murders Rachel's friend in front of dozens of witnesses who either hide under their tables or sit their and take video of the murder instead of getting actual help.
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Oscar winner Russell Crowe gives an effectively menacing performance in the starring role, a character who is so devoid of conscience and soul that the screenplay doesn't even give the character a name. Caren Pistorius is an appropriate blend of strength and vulnerability for the damsel in distress and Gabriel Bateman is quite good as her son. The film provides some genuine "boos" and will keep you riveted to the screen as long as you don't think about it too much. 3

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Madonna: Truth or Dare
In 1991, Madonna was pretty much the biggest music star on the planet so a documentary taking us behind the scenes of her "Blonde Ambition" tour seemed like a no-brainer, but in 2021, this documentary comes off as a pretentious and dated look at the star, that provides some entertainment, but provides precious little insight into who Madonna Louise Ciccone really is...oh, and it seems to go on forever.
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To put this in perspective, it's important to know where Madonna was at the time this documentary was made. She was fresh off playing Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy with Warren Beatty (who also appears here because Beatty always dates his leading ladies) and she had a # 1 smash single called "Vogue" that was a monster and it was on the strength of these successes that Madonna became the executive producer of this carefully manipulated look behind the scenes of her tour that takes us behind the scenes of this physically and emotionally exhausting tour of the US and Europe.
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As the Executive Producer, Madonna had the last word on what ended up on the screen and that's glaringly obvious because the star constructed a hard-to-ignore fourth wall between her and the viewer that keeps the subject completely distanced from the audience. She provides a carefully scripted narration to sections of the film, but never sits down and allows herself to be interviewed or asked any questions.
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I've always felt that in a successful celebrity documentary, I should learn things about the subject that I never knew before. Every moment the star spends onscreen feels carefully staged, even though she never makes bones about being on camera. She shares personal stories about her life, but the sharing is done with the dancers, back-up singers, and her personal assistant. She never speaks directly to the camera. Research revealed that after the release of this film, three of the back up dancers featured here sued the star, so take from that what you will.
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My favorite moment in the film where I felt like I saw the closest thing I'll ever see to Madonna the person was a quiet little scene where she gets on the phone and calls her father, asking him if he's coming to the show and how many tickets he wants. Madonna turns into a 13 year old girl during this scene and it is the most vividly human moment in the film.
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There is a lot of footage of Madonna freaking out about equipment malfunction and the actual concert footage shown is a lot of fun. The choreography for her concerts is inventive and provocative. Director Alek Keshishian does show some real imagination in his presentation of "Vogue". The only thing I learned about the woman that I never knew before was the answer when one of her dancers asked her who the only love of her life has been for her entire life and, believe me, the answer will shock you. But that left another hour and 58 minutes of some serious entertainment peaks and valleys that made this film seem six hours long. Hardcore Madonna fans will be in heaven I guess, but the whole thing just felt so...yesterday.
3

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Blackbird (2019)
2019's Blackbird is an emotionally manipulative family drama that falters during the second act with some uncomfortable story detours, but remains watchable thanks to sensitive direction and a wonderful, hand-picked ensemble cast,
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Based on a 2014 Danish film called Silent Heart, this is the story of a free-spirited woman named Lily, who is dying of a disease that will leave her a vegetable. Lily has instead chosen to have her husband, Paul, assist in a suicide while she is still able to function. The weekend before she plans to leave the planet, she invites the people closest to her for one final gathering to say goodbye. The attendees include her older daughter, the tightly wound Jennifer, her stuffed shirt husband, Michael and her teenage son, Jonathan; Jennifer's sister, Anna, and her girlfriend, Chris, and Lily's best friend, Liz.
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Christian Torpe was allowed to adopt his own 2014 screenplay into an Americanized version of the same story which is engaging and emotionally charged for the first half of the story, where we find a familiar story dressed up with additional layers that we don't usually see in stories like this. The legality of assisted suicide is actually addressed here, made all the more disturbing because this is a subject that should have been addressed long before this fateful weekend. On a lighter side, I loved that one of the last things Lily wants to do with her family is celebrate Christmas, even making her son-in-law go out and cut down a Christmas tree and we can't help but laugh when, after an elaborate Christmas dinner and before the gifts, Lily insists the family smoke a joint together.
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And just when we're completely enveloped in the proceedings and just want Lily to have everything that she wants, suddenly the story shifts to the family members whose personal feelings about this weekend as well as their own personal issues take center stage, which just felt wrong. I hated the reveal that Anna did not like what her mother was doing and is planning to put a stop to it. Jennifer and Anna's issues as sisters and the issues between Jennifer and Michael also pull focus from what Lily wants and that just felt wrong. There's another major reveal before Lily's journey home that just felt unnecessary but leads to film back to where it should have stayed. There are a little moments here and there that stay with you...my fight with tears was lost when Lily gave Paul her wedding ring at the dinner table.
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Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) offers a sensitive yet easy going pacing to this story that also has just the slightest voyeuristic touch, allowing us a peak at what is a very private weekend with a family that we really shouldn't be watching. The film is beautifully photographed and the cast is spectacular, featuring superb performances from Oscar winner Susan Sarandon whose delicately-nuanced Lily commands the screen, Sam Neill has her loving husband, and Oscar winner Kat e Winslet as Jennifer. Mia Wasikowska does a flashy turn as Anna and newcomer Anson Boon is an eye-opener as Jonathan. Despite the second act detour, this film did have my stomach in knots for the majority of its running time. 3.5

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The Cannonball Run
The late Burt Reynolds was probably the biggest movie star on the planet in 1981. His movies weren't Merchant-Ivory, but they made billions at the box office. Reynolds had so much juice that he could put just about anything onscreen and clean up at the box office, evidenced in a silly and pointless action comedy called The Cannonball Run, which, incredibly was the #3 biggest money making film of 1981.
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The film is centered on a wild cross country road race that ends in California, that is illegal and dangerous but apparently anyone with a set of wheels wants to participate. Reynolds plays JJ McClure, an annual participant in the race who thinks the answer to winning the race is traveling in an ambulance, accompanied by best pal Vincent (Dom DeLuise), a drunken doctor (Jack Elam) and a pretty conservationist (Farrah Fawcett) pretending to be a comatose patient so that they can ignore traffic signals.
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This film is apparently based on a real race called the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, but it's hard to imagine that this real life event is as out of hand as what happens in this comedy, which is pretty much just a hodgepodge of car crashes, cops chasing racers, racers chasing cops, female drivers distracting cops with their physical assets, and a Jewish guy who looks exactly like Roger Moore.
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It seems a lot of thought wasn't put into Brock Yates' screenplay, which takes way too long to introduce the participants in the race, including Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. as a couple of drunken gamblers masquerading as priests, Jamie Farr as an Arab Sheik, Bert Convy and Warren Berlinger who are riding a motorcycle in the race disguised as husband and wife, and Jackie Chan. George Furth does manage to generate a few laughs as a stuffy conservationist trying to put a stop to the race.
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This was Reynolds' 24th film and he and director Hal Needham decided. not to tamper too much with what had worked for Reynolds up to this point, as a lot of the action is just a variation on stuff we've seen in better Reynolds films, Smokey and the Bandit in particular. There's also a certain sadness that hangs over this film as about 99% of the all-star cast is no longer with us. This film ended some careers and began others, but incredibly, it kept Burt Reynolds king of the box office, but I'm not sure why. If the truth be told, the funniest thing in the movie is Roger Moore as Seymour Goldfarb as Roger Moore. 1

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No Sudden Move
The screenplay is overly complex and takes a little too long to get where it's going, but the 2021 crime thriller No Sudden Move remains watchable thanks to some crisp performances and the skill of the Oscar winning director of Traffic behind the camera.
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The setting is Detroit in the 1950's and as the story opens, we see three criminal lowlifes being hired by a crime lord from their past they want nothing to do with, to retrieve a document, but as the allegedly simple assignment goes horribly wrong, their attempts to figure out why lead them to a criminal conspiracy of epic consequence that we never see coming.
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Steven Soderbergh applies his usual slick and glossy detail to the delicate mounting of this story written by Ed Solomon, that actually combines actual events and fictional characters into such an effective blur that we're actually shocked by the epilogue offered at the conclusion of the story. What begins as a typical underworld drama initially confuses due to a canvas where most of the principal characters are drawn in shades of gray, making it impossible or the viewer to figure out who we're supposed to be rooting for. As the three thugs we are introduced to at the beginning of the story immediately find themselves holding an innocent accountant and his family hostage, the viewer is bamboozled as these guys find themselves pawns in a deadly conspiracy that boils down to one codebook and one document which could have an unprecedented effect on the entire automotive industry.
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Soderbergh allows the story to move at a leisurely pace that, at times, tries viewer patience and confuses because as the story progresses, the canvas becomes bigger and bigger. The crime lord that the three thugs don't want to work for at the beginning turns out to be the tip of the iceberg and by this time, viewer empathy has completely reversed and even though we're not 100% sure of what's going on here, we sure want to find out as the final third of the film commences and surprises are provided right down to the final reel.
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Soderbergh has dressed up this story beautifully with the aid of first rate production values, bringing the 1950's to life and has assembled a terrific cast committed to his vision. Don Cheadle and Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro are razor sharp as 2/3 off the trio hired at the beginning of the film. Solid support is provided by Jon Hamm, Kieran Culkin, and especially David Harbour. Also loved Brendan Fraser in an eye-opening turn as one of those mob enforcers that you'd expect actors like the late Frank Vincent or Steven Schirripa to play. David Holmes' creepy music score frames the story nicely, I just wish it had been a little simpler to follow. 3.5

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You're a Big Boy Now
Legendary Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola earned his Master of Fine Arts from UCLA film school when he submitted a 1966 cinematic assault of the senses called You're a Big Boy Now, which features mad filmmaking technique, some eye-opening performances, and a story that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
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Bernard Chanticleer (Peter Kastner) is a virginal and socially inept 19 year old who works at the New York Public Library. He works for his father (Rip Torn) who ignores him for the most part but his mother (Geraldine Page) is a smothering shrew who redefines the word overprotective, who writes Bernard letters that include locks of her hair and has decided her primary mission as a mother is to keep all women from him. Bernard moves into boarding house where the landlady (Julie Harris) keeps a rooster that attacks beautiful women and somehow attracts the attention of pretty co-worker Amy (Karen Black), but Bernard only has eyes for an icy and insensitive go-go dancer named Barbara Darling (Elizabeth Hartman).
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Let me start by saying Coppola displays uncanny skills as a filmmaker here and it's easy to see that this was going to be a director to watch. The film features incredible camerawork that makes maximum use of its on location filming in New York. There's a scene where Bernard chases a fugitive kite all over Manhattan that's beautifully shot but really has no purpose other than padding the running time. Coppola's use of New York as a cinematic canvas rivals Woody Allen, working closely with film editor Aram Avakian in keeping the audience on their toes, with a film that somehow moves at a lightning clip but still seems four hours long.
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It's Coppola's adaptation of a novel by David Benedictus that really weighs this film down. Maybe it's Benedictus' fault and not Coppola's but the screenplay by Coppola is just hard to latch onto. This Bernard character is way to inept to be believable...he's not just a virgin, but he doesn't even know what a cigarette is. He spends almost fifteen minutes of screentime cruising Times Square pornography shops where Coppola assaults us with dark and disturbing sexual imagery in what seems to be a deliberate effort by Coppola to shock and/or offend. This triangle with Bernard, Amy, and Barbara makes no sense either...there's a scene that runs about 10 minutes where Barbara asks Bernard to move in with her that completely defies logic.
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Coppola gets some interesting performances from his cast here. Kastner, best known for a 60's sitcom called The Ugliest Girl in Town, tends to grate on the nerves, but Torn is slick and understated and Page's mother from hell earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Karen Black, in her second feature film, is charming as Amy, but it's Elizabeth Hartman's brassy performance as Barbara that really dominates the proceedings, a role unlike anything she had done. Julie Harris is also effectively cast against type as Bernard's ditzy landlady. Loved the song score by the Loving Spoonful too. An alleged comedy, that's bizarre and often silly, but it's never boring. A curio to be sure. 2.5

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Queen Bees
On the surface, the story appears to be The Golden Girls meets Mean Girls, but the 2021 comedy-drama Queen Bees is a mostly predictable entertainment with a serious injection of star power that makes the film a lot more fun than it should have been.
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Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn plays Helen Wilson, a vivacious, aging widow who is in denial about being able to take care of herself, who has to temporarily move into an assisted living facility after she almost burns her house down. Fighting the change with every fiber in her being, she quickly dismantles the three snooty old biddies (Jane Curtin, Ann-Margret, Loretta Devine), who have declared themselves queens of the facility and then finds herself fighting a potential romance with a charming new resident (James Caan).
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Donald Martin's screenplay is a little on the thin side, but veteran television director Michael Lembeck gives the film a lot more meat by casting it with pros (some who have been from the big screen for way too long) and allowing their many years in the business to imbue their characters and make them completely endearing to the audience, who, despite a surprise plot twist here and there, see where this is going pretty early on but don't care because the ride is such a pleasure.
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Needless to say, the ridiculously talented Burstyn is the heart of the story and proves that 60 years in the business has not harmed her ability to command the screen. She is absolutely enchanting here and even if nothing else in this movie worked, her performance alone was reason to watch. I especially loved when she's teaching Caan how to box step and when she gets high with Devine, not to mention every moment where she puts the true villian of the piece, her daughter (Elizabeth Mitchell).
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The legendary Ann-Margret is a total scene stealer as the aging flirt who wants the local nursing home Romeo (Christopher Lloyd) all to herself. Jane Curtin completely invests in the roe of the bitchy Janet Poindexter and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed James Caan onscreen this much. Also have to mention Matthew Barnes, who lights up the screen as the best grandson ever. There's nothing innovative here, but it's nice to see a film where most of the cast is over the age of 60 can still provide solid entertainment. What a pleasant surprise. 3.5

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The Dolly Sisters
Twentieth Century Fox spared no expense in bringing 1942's The Dolly Sisters to the big screen, a lavishly mounted musical that is actually based on a real life sister act. Research revealed that one of the sisters actually lent her scrapbooks to the studio to help them mount the story.
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Betty Grable plays Jenny and June Haver plays Rosie, the title characters, a sister act who are struggling in vaudeville until they meet a struggling songwriter named Harry Fox (John Payne), who gets them an audition with Oscar Hammerstein, which begins their meteoric rise to stardom, including an extensive tour of Europe, including a gig at the Folies Bergere. The act is threatened when Harry falls in love with Jenny, but can't deal with the fact that she's a bigger star than she is. Of course, because it's 1942, the war comes into the story where Harry enlists while Rosie actually finds romance with a wealthy department store owner.
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The screenplay could have used a little tightening as the film is definitely longer than it needed to be, but the story contains a lot of plot elements that just wouldn't fly in 2021. Like a lot of showbiz musicals of the 40's and 50's, the sisters' rise to stardom is way too fast to be completely believable. Even more troublesome is the sexist attitude of Harry's character,
who expects Jenny to give up her career so that she can be with him. There's an infuriating scene where Harry visits Jenny while on leave, and tells her that if she doesn't give up her career and meet him at the train station, they're done.
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The second half of the film does get a little melodramatic, but Irving Cummings' direction seems inspired by Florenz Ziegfeld, elaborate to the nth degree, a feast for the eyes and ears, including breathtaking sets and Oscar-worthy costumes by the legendary Orry-Kelly.
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The musical numbers are terrific with two standouts: "Don't Be Too Old Fashioned/Powder Lipstick, and Rouge" is an elaborate production number where the chorus girls are dressed as makeup (clever work by Orry-Kelly). The other, which might not fly in 2021 was "The Darktown Strutters Ball" which Grable and Haver sang partially in French and are backed up dozens of chorus girls in black face.
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Grable and Haver are wonderful together and unlike Down Argentine Way, we get more than ample exposure to the million dollar legs of Grable. John Payne holds his own with the ladies and he and Grable would make other films together. Also loved SZ "Cuddles" Sakall as the girls' uncle. It's a little longer than it needed to be, but it's richly entertaining, especially for Grable fans. 3.5

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What Lies Below
What Lies Below, a 2020 Amazon production, is a creepy psychological thriller featuring some imaginative direction and providing some genuine scares as long as you don't think about it too much.
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Liberty Wells is a brilliant but socially inept 16 year old who is picked up from summer camp by her mom, Michelle, who takes her to their secluded mountain cabin where Michelle introduces her daughter to her charming and gorgeous soon to be husband, John, who does everything he can to make Liberty accept him as part of her mother's life. Liberty senses something off about John initially as he seems to be coming on to her, but eventually evidence begins to mount for Liberty that John just might not be human.
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Director and screenwriter Braden R. Duemmler has provided us with a story that offers not only a dash of originality but elements from classic thrillers, blending them just thoroughly enough that the novice filmgoer might not notice. The initial direction of the story, which seems to be a romantic triangle between the three principals, is beautifully established with loads of erotic imagery that makes us think we know exactly what's going on. There's this beautifully shot moment of Liberty peeking around a corner and seeing John reach for something and the camera reveals his t-shirt moving up to reveal his bare waistline that speaks volumes.
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Duemmler tries to give an importance to what he's doing with opening shots of Liberty and Michelle travelling to the cabin, shot from the sky and closing in on the vehicle, very reminiscent of the Torrance family driving to the Overlook in The Shining, that sort of foreshadow the terror to come. Unfortunately, once it's revealed that John might not be human, the story begins to make less and less sense, as we have to wonder how long John and Michelle have been together and how he's been able to keep the truth about him from her. We also wonder why Liberty takes so long to seek help when she knows there's something terribly wrong here. John's agenda does come to light, but the explanation provided the viewer is unsatisfying.
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Duemmler's work here reminded me a lot of the Mike Flanagan film called Hush, there's a whole lot of directing skill on display here, with strong assists from his cinematography and editing teams, but the story is just a little too spotty to convince. Ema Horvath shows some promise as young Liberty and Mena Suvari, who has played more than her share of teenage temptresses over the years, is surprisingly effective as the mom letting her loins run her life and Trey Tucker lights up the screen in his fifth feature film appearance as John. Gavin Keese's creepy music is a plus, though it reminded me of the music in The Shining as well. If you turn off your brain, there are some scares to be had here. 2.5

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The Toy
Despite the presence of Richard Pryor in the starring role and veteran Richard Donner in the director's chair, The Toy is an exhausting and not very funny comedy that never works the way it should and isn't really worthy of the firestorm of controversy it caused during its 1982 release.
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This Americanized version of a French film called Le Jouet, is the story of a multi-millionaire named US Bates (Jackie Gleason) who gets custody of his son one week out of the year and pays an unemployed writer (guess who) $10,000 to be a "toy" for his spoiled brat of a son for the week.
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This adaption of Le Jouet by Carol Sobieski (Fried Green Tomatoes) has clearly been molded to fit the talents of Pryor. However, a lot of tension aroused by this film at the time was because the story appeared to be racist and that Pryor's character was essentially a 20th century slave. An argument for this could be raised, but a second look at this film after almost 40 years begs to differ for this reviewer.
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First of all, Pryor's character, Jack Brown, is paid $10,000 for his services, which can hardly be considered slave wages. The man is not forced into this, it's not like he's being blackmailed. He needs the money to keep his home from being sold. He could have said no and the circumstances of this job only come about because this US Bates is a terrible parent paying someone to parent for him. Admittedly, the fact that Jack Brown is delivered to the boy in a wooden box seemed a little offensive, but hardly grounds for calling the entire film racist. If the Jack Brown character had been white, no one would have cared about how he was being treated and if this film was truly racist, Pryor wouldn't have agreed to do it, which does allow Jack to get the best of US Bates before the credits roll.
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The main problem with the film, shockingly, is that it's one of Pryor's least funny performances , despite a lot of the Jerry-Lewis-type physical comedy required. A school of thought is that his performance might have something to do with his lack of appeal for the material, but whatever it is, he's just not funny. On the other hand, Jackie Gleason's performance as US Bates is nothing short of superb as is the star-making turn by Scott Schwartz as his son, despite the fact that they did not get along at all during production. Also loved Teresa Ganzel as US' buxom and not as dumb as she appears bride. Donner's attention to production values is first rate, especially the detail put into the Bates mansion, but the film really isn't that funny, racist or not. 2.5

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America: The Motion Picture
Don't let the pretentious title fool you...American history is stomped on, twisted inside out, and mangled beyond recognition in an off-the-wall, politically incorrect , animated laugh riot from Netflix called America: The Motion Picture, which in the tradition of proven farceurs like Seth MacFarlane and Matt Groening, takes no prisoners, breaks all the rules, and works tirelessly to shock and offend. The demographic for this film seems to be anyone who flunked history class in high school.
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In this 2021 hot mess, we are first introduced to childhood friends George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose lifelong friendship leads to their battle to defeat the British, who they refer to as the Fun Police, because of their stupid rules. Their battle to defeat the British is stalled when George and Abe go to the Ford Theater to see the Red, White, and Blue Man Group and Abe is brutally murdered by Benedict Arnold, stooge of the mighty King George. An inconsolable George returns to Mt Vernon and after having sex with wife, Martha, is inspired to continue the battle for freedom with the aid of Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Geronimo, and Thomas Edison (who is now a woman).
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Yes, strap yourself in for one of the bizarre animated adventures ever presented onscreen as director Matt Thompson and screenwriter Dave Callahan have turned American History into a marvel comic movie, where nothing happens the way it did in history and all concepts of logic and credibility are thrown out the window, stretching the powers of animation to the nth degree while giving us a disjointed look at just about every period of American history you can think of, except they've decided to throw out all the facts and just make us laugh.
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The film features adult language and themes (including a graphic sex scene between George and Martha Washington) and moves at a lightning pace, which turns out to be a detriment to the proceedings. There's so much clever and funny stuff going on here that it's absolutely impossible to catch it all. I doubt even repeat viewings would help. The British "rules" are briefly posted on a wall and I was laughing so hard as I started reading that I didn't even get to read them all. George Washington is given chainsaw hands and Benedict Arnold is a werewolf transformer, head to head in a climactic battle set to the tune of "You've Got a Fight for your Right (to Party)". This is a rare example of a story that could have been allowed to unfold a little more slowly.
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The animation is bold and brassy and the unabashed violence that unfolds here is unprecedented, but forgiven because it's animated. There is standout voice work from Channing Tatum as George Washington, Andy Samberg as Benedict Arnold, Will Forte as Abe Lincoln, and Jason Mantzoukas as Sam Adams. A definite "put your brain in check and enjoy" animated acid trip, the likes of which you'll never see. I could definitely see this someday becoming a midnight movie house cult classic like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 3.5

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Bambi
In 1942, Disney studios came up with an instant classic called Bambi, an animated look at the animal kingdom that was absolutely nothing like I imagined. For a film that was clearly aimed at children, this film was rich with a lot of dark and adult themes that one wouldn't expect for a film with its demographic target.
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As the film opens, we see all the animals in the forest rushing to get their first glimpse of a newly born fawn, whom they all refer to as "the young prince." The film follows this young prince learning to be part of this special animal kingdom until he is lured into "the meadow", where he is warned of danger from man and eventually finding romance, danger, and his place in the animal kingdom.
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There are several different themes that are explored in this film that I didn't see coming at all. Bambi's introduction to this special animal kingdom had almost a Shakespearean sensibility to it as we get a brief glimpse of Bambi's father and then don't see him again until halfway through the story. Tolerance seems to be the theme of the first third of the film as we watch Bambi openly embrace the other animals of the forest, forming special bonds with a rabbit named Thumper and a skunk that Bambi named Flower. Flower's adulation at the name Bambi gives him is absolutely adorable. I also found it an interesting touch that the first animal encounter that elicits fear from Bambi is with another fawn.
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Witnessing the education that Bambi receives from his mother is a little disconcerting as there is a vagueness to it that Bambi doesn't see but the viewer does. I've heard a lot about the death of Bambi's mother over the years, but it is portrayed with discretion and taste. Loved the introduction of romance into the lives of Bambi, Thumper, and Flower who initially resist but appear to be powerless against. Love is portrayed as all-powerful and that the female has said power. Thumper's seduction by a female bunny was particularly hysterical.
There are even hints of chauvinism and domestic abuse that would never go in a politically correct 2021, but probably went unnoticed to children in 1942.

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Was very impressed with the way music was such an integral part of telling this very special story. Loved that choral piece that played during Bambi's first rain, which began with the oboe punctuating each raindrop. This animated fairy tale is collaborative tale where every part of constructing it is intricate and important, though I don't think children appreciate the true substance of the piece. A direct to video sequel was produced in 2006.
4

[Citizen Rules]

Bambi
In 1942, Disney studios came up with an instant classic called Bambi, an animated look at the animal kingdom that was absolutely nothing like I imagined. For a film that was clearly aimed at children, this film was rich with a lot of dark and adult themes that one wouldn't expect for a film with its demographic target...

rating_4

Glad you watched this and nicely written review:up:

I can't believe you never seen Bambi until now. Did you watch Disney animation as a kid? Have you seen many other 1930-1960s Disney classic animation?

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I watched some Disney animation...I've seen Cinderella and later animated stuff like Jungle Book and The Aristocats, but I have never seen Snow White, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, or Fantasia

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Who are You, Charlie Brown?
Apple Original scores with 2021's Who are You , Charlie Brown?, a lovingly mounted look at the legendary creator of the Peanuts comic strip, Charles M Schulz, that seamlessly provides surprises about the subject and provides a loving look at the characters that we all grew up with.
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Director and co-screenwriter Michael Bonfiglio has provided an economic overview of the life and career of this iconic cartoonist, but made it infinitely more entertaining by framing it with an animated story where Charlie Brown receives a homework assignment where he has to sum up who he is in 500 words (thus the title of the documentary). It is this framework that takes this documentary a notch above most, because it is mounted with complete respect to the subject with surprisingly authentic detail that can be referenced in Schulz' work, pieced together from original strips and television specials without actually using work we have already seen.
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One of the most pleasant surprises for this reviewer was when it is revealed that Charlie Brown is not based on Charles Schulz, but that there is a little bit of Charles Schulz in ALL of the characters he created for the strip. Another pleasant surprise was the reveal of the first official PEANUTS strip which featured Charlie Brown, Patty, and Shermy. Patty and Shermy were later reduced to minor characters after the appearances of Snoopy, Linus, and the bombastic Lucy.
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Loved that the film paid special attention to Schulz' introduction of two characters to the strip many years after the strip started...Peppermint Patty was completely different from any other PEANUTS character and the reveal of who was partial inspiration for the character was fantastic and the introduction of the strip's first black character, Franklin (whose last name is revealed here, which I never knew existed).
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Found myself fighting tears when they showed Schulz' drawing hand getting shaky after being diagnosed with colon cancer and loved seeing the way PEANUTS has affected so many other artists. The film is narrated by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and commentary is provided by Drew Barrymore, Kevin Smith, Paul Feig, Al Roker and a Jewish cartoonist named Ira Glass to whom Christmas means nothing but never missed a viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Treat yourself to this special look at a very special artist...it'll make you feel 10 years old again. 4

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Kissin Cousins
Elvis Presley makes an attempt to flex his acting muscles in a silly musical comedy called Kissin Cousins, which finds the Pelvis stumbling into Hatfield/McCoy territory.
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The 1964 film stars Elvis as Josh Morgan, a soldier who has been commissioned by the army to get a mountain family to allow the army to build a missile base on the property and pay them $1000 a month for the privilege. Accompanied by Captain Salbo (Jack Albertson), Josh returns to Porcupine Flats where he meets long lost cousins, Ma and Pa Tatum, and a cousin named Jody, who is also played by Elvis.
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Josh finds himself romancing a pair of distant cousins named Selena (Pam Austin) and Azalea (Yvonne Craig) and fending off a group of horny females called the Kitty Hawks. Meanwhile cousin Jody finds romance with a pretty military stenographer (Cynthia Pepper).
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Director and co-screenwriter Gene Nelson has concocted a predictable story that pretty much plays like an extended episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, but the gimmick for this movie was clearly supposed to be the novelty of Elvis playing a dual role. Unfortunately, the only distinction between Josh and Jody is that Jody has blonde hair. Scenes where Josh and Jody appear together are kept to a minimum and there are moments here and there where you can actually see Elvis' double. There were also a couple of plot points that I don't know would have played in 2021: First, the fact that Josh wants to romance both of these girls, even though they're supposedly cousins. Second, the moment that Josh Jody come face to face for the first time, all Jody wants to do is wrestle with Josh.
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Of course, we're distracted from the dumb story by having Elvis sing a bunch of nice songs. He actually sings three songs during the first 15 minutes of the film. Highlights included "A Boy and Two Little Girls", "Smokey Mountain Boy", "Tender Feeling", and two big production numbers, "Barefoot Ballad", and "Once is Enough". If the truth be told, the strongest musical moment in the film came from a rarity in an Elvis film,,,a solo for someone other than Elvis. Veteran movie goddess Glenda Farrell actually stops the show with the bluesy "Pappy Won't You Please Come Home". A gallant effort for Elvis to try something different, but when it comes down it, it's just another Elvis movie. 2.5

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Tom Clancy's Without Remorse
Despite some impressive production values, 2021's Tom Clancy's Without Remorse is a by the numbers action adventure that is muddled and predictable, never fully engaging this reviewer. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who has never seen any of the previous films based on Tom Clancy's novels and that's no accident...I've always been wary of a movie where the title includes the author of the book the film is based on...big red flag for me.
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Michael B Jordan inherits the role of John Kelly here, a former Navy Seal who returns from a special mission in Syria and not long after his return, his pregnant wife is brutally murdered and he is critically injured as well, sending him on the expected revenge mission, which finds Kelly caught in the middle of a larger and darker conspiracy.
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The John Kelly character was played by Willem Dafoe in A Clear and Present Danger and by Liev Schreiber in The Sum of all Fears and maybe viewing those films might have helped understanding this film more. What I found basically was Death Wish meets Rambo III, where a soldier's grief triggers his determination no matter what the danger, which here consists of alleged allies from the FBI and the CIA, but screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's screenplay is so cliched that this reviewer was able to separate the white hats from the black hats pretty quickly.
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The film features the expected explosive actions scenes including a couple that defy logic, like a crashed vehicle being set on fire and then our hero entering and exiting the vehicle before it exploded. The underwater climax after the reveal of the true bad guy was a little hard to swallow as well.
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Director Stefano Sollima puts a lot of attention into the mounting of the action here, with standout work from his editing and sound people. but apparently thought non-stop action would disguise the deficiencies in the screenplay. Michael B. Jordan is properly chiseled in the underwritten lead role and works well with Jodie Turner-Smith (Queenie and Slim0, Jamie Bell, and Guy Pearce. Fans of previous Tom Clancy works will have a head start I imagine. 2.5

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The Big Picture (1989)
Christopher Guest, the king of the "mockumentary" (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), made another serious impression with a scathing black comedy called The Big Picture that provides entertainment thanks to some imaginative direction and a terrific cast, but ultimately falters due to an over ambitious screenplay that makes some odd detours during the final act.
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The 1989 film stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Chapman, a film student who wins a major Hollywood film award and is then courted by a pushy studio head who agrees to get his studio behind Nick's vision for his first full-length feature film idea, but wants to make all kinds of changes to Nick's script, which the young filmmaker reluctantly agrees to. Right in the middle of the production, the studio head is abruptly fired and Nick's film is shut down, leaving him penniless and eventually reduced to becoming a messenger to pay the rent until a fellow film student offers him the beginning to a new career.
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Guest and co-screenwriters Michael Varhol and Michael McKean (who also appears as Nick's best friend and cinematographer) start off with a clever idea that takes effective jabs at the Hollywood system, like a later Guest film, For Your Consideration. Loved the idea of a young filmmaker sacrificing his personal vision in order to get his film made and was looking forward to seeing what finally ended up on the screen, Instead we watch the film get scrapped and our totally likable hero getting eaten up and spit out of Hollywood's mouth and people who were behind him during his project, like an oversexed movie starlet and his flamboyantly neurotic agent, turn their back on him. And then the story does a hard to believe 180 where all of a sudden, Nick gets a new career and he's Hollywood's darling again, including an odd reappearance from the fired studio head.
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There is some clever stuff going on here...loved the opening of the student film award being given out with clips of the five nominated films being shown (one of which features Elliott Gould, June Lockhart, Stephen Collins, and Roddy McDowell). There are myriad fantasies touches that don't always work, though I loved when Nick was visualizing his movie to the studio head and it was being shown to the viewer, every time the studio head interrupted, the actors in the fantasy looked at the camera. Also loved that scene where Nick makes his friend get out of the car while he takes a private call from the studio. The detour to the unexpected happy ending just came off as convenient and rushed.
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Guest assembled a terrific cast to pull off his vision, some of whom would later become permanent members of his rep company, like McKean. Bacon is utterly charming as Nick Chapman and the late JT Walsh is appropriately smarmy as the studio head. Martin Short garners major laughs as Nick's off the wall agent and Teri Hatcher does a sex on legs turn as the self-absorbed movie starlet. Also enjoyed Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dan Schneider, and Barbra Streisand's son, Jason Gould, as Nick's fellow film students, who all cross his path later on in his life. Guest has a really terrific film in here somewhere and show the promise he would deliver in later years, he just lets this one get away from him a little. 3.5

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Gunpowder Milkshake
2021's Gunpowder Milkshake is a stylishly thunderous and unapologetically bloody nail biter that doesn't allow the viewer time to sweat small plot points, but provides solid entertainment thanks to sophisticated direction and spectacular production values, including the most memorable use of the art of slow motion that this reviewer has ever seen.
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Sam is a second generation professional assassin who hasn't seen her mother, Scarlett, in fifteen years. Sam is commissioned to retrieve a large amount of money from a powerful organization known as The Firm, an assignment that leads Sam to rescuing an 8 year old girl who has been kidnapped, killing the son of another powerful criminal, and finding assistance from three of her mother's former associates, also professional assassins, and just as Sam and the little girl are forced to go on the run, Scarlett comes back into her life right on cue.
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Director and co-screenwriter Navot Papushado has mounted a gargantuan and violent epic that is almost too much for the viewer to take in completely. There is initial yet familiar confusion as it's hard to tell who Sam is working for and who is after her, and the answer to these questions seem to change throughout the running time. But Papushado has provided a terrific tale in this Me too area, populated with strong female characters who spend the majority of the running time kicking serious ass without ever breaking a sweat.
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Papushado's approach to presenting this story definitely displays influence from directors like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, but brings his own style to the singularly uniquecanvas upon which this story is mounted. Jack Rabbit Slims gets a layer we don't see coming when the diner that opens and closes the film has the hostess making all patrons give up their weapons before being seated. We never expect the library where Sam meets her mother's former partners to have a computerized headquarters upstairs and hundreds of hollowed out books full of weapons and cash. Loved that bowling alley too where Sam dispatches of a trio of thugs she calls the Boneheads and that creepy hospital where our heroine temporarily loses the use of her arms. The relationship that develops between Sam and the little girl kind of reminded me of Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn in Aliens. Loved when they were driving the car together.
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Papushado puts so much detail into the look of the film, including a flawless use of slow motion that the viewer almost doesn't notice how a lot of the violence on display completely defies logic. The film features incredible art direction/set direction, editing, sound, and music. There are standout performances from Karen Gillan as Sam, Lena Heady as Scarlett, and especially Carla Gugino as Madeline, but this film is, more than anything, a textbook for aspiring directors. LOVE that title too. 3.5

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Yankee Doodle Dandy
James Cagney's charismatic Oscar-winning performance is the centerpiece of an elaborate musical biopic of patriotic composer and showman George M Cohan called Yankee Doodle Dandy that rises above its predictable screenplay to provide solid entertainment thanks to the extraordinary performance from Cagney.
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This 1942 musical feast traces Cohan's life and career from his humble beginnings to vaudeville to his amazing success on Broadway with several musicals that were rooted in the man's strong political conscience and how his said political conscience allowed him to contribute to the war effort even though he was deemed too old to serve.
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The screenplay plays like many other musical biopics of the era, but the underlying theme of Cohan's political conscience and his considerable ego are always at the forefront. Biopics of the 40's and 50's weren't big on the facts, often sacrificing or altering facts for the sake of entertainment and where entertainment is concerned, this film delivers in spades.
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Director Michael Curtiz, who would also direct Joan Crawford to an Oscar in Mildred Pierce, does a wonderful job of creating elaborate musical sequences based on Cohan's work, particularly a show called "Little Johnny Jones, which featured "Give My Regards to Broadway" and the title tune and this is where Cagney really shines. His rag doll-styled tap dancing was unlike anything we were seeing Astaire and Kelly doing, not to mention his "talk-singing" of songs, a technique of selling a song onscreen that would decades later be perfected by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.
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Other musical highlights include "Mary", "Harrigan", "The Belle of the Barber's Ball", "Oh You Wonderful Girl" and the patriotic finale "Over There".
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In addition to Cagney's Oscar for Best Actor, the film also won Oscars for musical scoring and sound. The lavish costumes and settings are Oscar-worthy too, but this movie is the Jimmy Cagney show. He appears in practically every frame of the movie and never makes you regret it. 4

[Citizen Rules]

Yankee Doodle Dandy should have been shot in glorious three-strip technicolor! Still a great movie and Cagney can dance!

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Bad Trip
Actor/comedian Eric Andre gets an "A" for imagination but his 2021 comedy Bad Trip is an over the top and often offensive comic melding of two different genres that were never really meant to meld, providing the occasional chuckle, but not enough to sustain its economic running time.
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Andre directed, co-wrote, and stars in this comedy as Chris, a guy who lives in Florida and has an accidental run in with a girl from high school named Michelle, learning that she now lives in Manhattan. Chris decides that Michelle is his soulmate and decides he has to go to Manhattan and find her. He persuades his best friend, Bud (Lil Rel Howery) to steal his sister's car so they can take a road trip to New York. Bud's sister, Trina (Tiffany Haddish) is a convict who has escaped from jail and hits the road to murder her brother and his BFF for stealing her car.
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Andre seems to be going the Borat route here as he presents a standard buddy/road movie, fills it with outrageous physical comedy and places said comedy in the context of a hidden camera television premise and therein lies what's wrong here. The blending of a movie genre and a television genre is a risk that doesn't pay off here the way it did in Borat probably because Andre's writing skills aren't at the level of Sasha Baron Cohen.
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The film actually gets off to a good start with Chris' fake musical number in the middle of a mall where shoppers have no desire to be part of a musical number. Unfortunately, Chris' encounter with a gorilla in a zoo, Trina's hassling people about having seen her brother, Bud's battle with a port-a-potty, and Chris' drunken vomit-filled escapade at a bar aren't really as funny as Andre thinks they are.
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It wasn't until about halfway through the film that I realized what Andre was trying to do here, and once I did, it didn't make what was going on any funnier, Andre is a funny, energetic guy who shows promise as an actor and a writer, but this vehicle just makes him look like an idiot. Lil Rel Howery just looks embarrassed throughout and Haddish is just ridiculously over the top. Borat fans might have a head start here. 2

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I Spy
Despite expensive production values and a semblance of chemistry between the stars, the 2002 action comedy I Spy is a predictable buddy comedy/action adventure that suffers due to an unimaginative and messy screenplay.
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Owen Wilson plays Alexander Scott, a government secret agent who has been assigned to retrieve Switchblade, an invisible stealth fighter jet that is getting ready to be auctioned off to the highest bidder by an arms dealer named Arnold Gundars (Malcom McDowell) to the highest bidder in Budapest, Hungary. Scott's bosses decide the way to get to the plane is through civilian cover, which comes in the form of middleweight boxing champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), who is going to be in Budapest battling for his 58th victory in the ring.
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This movie pretty much just borrows the basic premise of the classic 1960's spy drama that starred Robert Culp and Bill Cosby and have created a story that just seems to be another comic vehicle for Murphy, who works very hard at being funny here. Unfortunately, his Kelly Robinson is an obnoxious egomaniac who is so self-absorbed that he refers to himself in the first person, a bit that grows very tiresome and very quickly. The spotty screenplay also seems to be a bit confused on exactly how competent a secret agent Alex Scott is...in one scene, he comes off as a naive rookie agent who is in way over his head, and in the next he comes off like James Bond. His competence is also clouded by his attraction to a fellow agent named Rachel Wright (Famke Janssen), which, in reality, should have gotten someone else assigned to the case.
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Director Betty Thomas makes the most of her $70 million dollar budget here employing gorgeous on location photography, first rate editing, stunt work, and visual effects, but the whole thing just has that all-too-familiar "been there done that" feeling about it. It was a little hard to swallow that international criminals were making silent bids on a plane they couldn't see, but we go with it, expecting some surprise plot twist that will make us accept everything we're watching, but it never really comes. The climactic confrontation on the rooftop between our heroes and Gundars goes on way too long.
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Murphy and Wilson do work well together, even though Murphy's over-the-top cockiness gets tiresome. MacDowell makes the most of his thankless villain role as does Janssen of her super spy leading lady. Wouldn't have minded a little more of Gary Cole's fellow spy of Alex whose shadow Alex spends a lot of time in. BTW, when Kelly takes that phone call from President Clinton near the beginning of the film, that's Will Ferrell doing Clinton. A big budget but sadly routine action yarn that might appeal to hardcore Murphy fans. 2

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Space Jam A New Legacy
Though the technical wizardry involved here can't be denied, 2021's Space Jam A New Legacy is an overlong and overambitious re-thinking of the hit 1996 film that definitely suffers from "sequel-itis"...the cinematic sequel formula that tries too hard to make everything bigger and better than the first movie, and, as usual, the results are exhausting and hanging until the credits roll is a chore.
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In this film, an artificial intelligence named Al G Rhythm (Don Cheadle), who has his own server at Warner Brothers kidnaps the son of NBA star Lebron James, who hates basketball but is creating his own basketball video game, and tells Lebron the only way to get his son back is to get the Toons to help him win a basketball game against his team, the Goon Squad, who are actually from his son's game brought to life. If Lebron loses the game, everyone in the game and all the spectators will be trapped in Al G's server forever.
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First of all, this is really a re-imagining of the 1996 film, as it really has nothing to do with that film, except for the fact that a basketball player finds himself interacting with Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Sadly, Lebron James; one-note performance here isn't as nearly as entertaining as Michael Jordan was in the first film, which made remaining invested in what was happening difficult.
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The screenwriters took way too long with the confusing exposition that leads up to Lebron leaving Toon Town with Bugs, who is all alone there now, and finding teammates for this game. It's confusing when Lebron and Bugs travel to DC land looking for help from Batman and Superman, but end up with Daffy, Granny, the Road Runner, and Bugs' squeeze, Lola Bunny, who is battling Wonder Woman when we first see her. For some reason, Daffy, who provided a lion's portion of the laughs in the first film is regulated to the sidelines as a coach in this one.
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Director Malcom D Lee, who directed films like The Best Man and Girls Trip might have been a little out of his element here. Despite all the dazzling animation and visual effects involved, this film moves at a snail's pace and seems to go on forever. Don Cheadle easily walks off with the film with his slick and sharp Al G Rhythm. And if you don't doze off, you'll catch cameos by Lil Rel Howery, Anthony Davis, Ernie Johnson, Draymond Green, and Sue Bird. This time around the voice of Lola Bunny is provided by Zendaya. An "A" for effort, but it takes too long to get going and too long to wrap up. 3

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The Accidental Tourist
Intense direction by Lawrence Kasdan and a superb performance by Oscar winner William Hurt in the starring role are the best things about an unconventional drama called The Accidental Tourist that starts off as intriguing character study but moves to a melodramatic and slightly disturbing conclusion
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The 1988 film stars Hurt as Macon, an emotionally distant writer of travel guides whose child died a year ago, which leads to his wife, Sarah (Kathleen Turner) leaving him. Even though he fights it all the way, Macon is eventually brought out of his shell by an effervescent but pushy dog trainer named Muriel (Geena Davis) with a young son, who starts to take control of Macon's life when Sarah suddenly decides to re-enter it.
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Frank Galati's screenplay, based on a novel by Anne Tyler, is a little on the talky side, but it's forgiven because the central characters are so terribly flawed yet believable. Galati and Kasdan quickly establish Macon's never having gotten over the death of his child and his willingness to take the blame for the end of his marriage. It's initially interesting as we watch Muriel work so hard to be in Macon's life, but the way her turn to obsession seems to coincide with Sarah's return into Macon's life was beyond creepy.
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The first half of the film works better as it concentrates on Macon and how he has become the shell of a man he once was, using snippets from his book as partial narration to his empty life, which actually involved traveling around the world. Loved the scene in London on the street with all the restaurants specializing in American food and the scene in Paris where he Muriel eat at a Burger King. The story gets even muddier with Sarah's return because nothing has changed between them and her desire to reconcile makes no sense.
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Kasdan, Hurt, and Turner reunite for the first time since Body Heat and make a formidable team. Geena Davis' quirky Muriel won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, though I'm not sure why. The work of Hurt and Kasdan make this one worth a look. 3

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Jolt
Another richly entertaining entry from the "Put your brain in check and enjoy" school of filmmaking, 2021's Jolt is a deft action thriller that features a story that doesn't bear too close scrutiny, but does feature an eye opening performance from the leading lady.
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Kate Beckinsale gets the role of her career playing Lindy, a woman who suffers from a condition that manifests itself in wild fits of violence that she has absolutely no control of. She has suffered from this condition since a child and has spent her life as convict, mental patient, and lab rat until a psychiatrist develops equipment that control her condition up to a point. The shrink tells Lindy that true love is the only possible cure for her condition. She meets a man named Justin on a blind date and thinks she's in love, but right before their third date, Justin is found brutally murdered.
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Scott Wascha's debut as a screenwriter shows a lot of promise as he has constructed a completely implausible story that done with just enough tongue in cheek sensibility that the viewer is able to accept a lot of what's going on here. The moments where we see Lindy imagine her attacks before they actually happen were a little obvious. We shouldn't have been able to tell whether or not what we were watching was really happening. Loved when she messed up that waitress and the scene in the maternity ward had me holding my breath. And just when we think we've been taken on just enough of an unbelievable ride, we get a delicious twist in the final act that doesn't completely explain everything, but sure makes it more acceptable.
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Director Tanya Wexler keeps this blend of The Terminator, Gunpowder Milkshake, and Promising Young Woman moving at a such a lightning pace that we can't help but get completely caught up. There are some impressive production values on display here, with shout-outs to art direction, editing, and sound. Kate Beckinsale blows her total screen persona out of the water here with a fire and ice performance unlike anything I've seen from her that allows her to employ her natural British accent. Solid support is provided by the always watchable Stanley Tucci as Lindy's shrink and Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox as cops on opposite sides of Lindy's innocence. It's not rooted in any kind of realism, but it's a lot of fun. 3.5

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Mother Wore Tights
Twentieth Century Fox poured a lot of money into 1947's Mother Wore Tights,a nostalgic and slightly syrupy musical comedy about a vaudeville family that starts off promisingly, but gets less and less interesting, despite its introduction of a charming screen team so strong that they made three more films together.
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The film stars Dan Dailey as a vaudeville hoofer named Frank who falls for Myrtle (Betty Grable), one of his chorus girls. He plucks her from the chorus line and they become their own double act and fall in love in the process. They get married and when Myrtle gets pregnant, she decides to retire from the stage. After the birth of their second daughter, Frank convinces Myrtle to return to the stage where they thrive until they decide that being with their daughters is more important than show business.
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Lamar Trotti's screenplay, based on a book by Miriam Young, that initially tries to tell Frank and Myrtle's story through the eyes of their elder daughter, Iris, but doesn't really grab the viewer's attention until Frank and Myrtle start experiencing success as a vaudeville team. The first half of the story is a lot of fun thanks to some wonderful musical numbers, but the second half of the film where Frank and Myrtle decide to give up show business and travel to different vacation spots with their daughters, is almost snore-inducing.
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It's sad because Fox really struck golf with the pairing of Dailey and Grable, who, with a little more attention from the studio, might have given Astaire and Rogers a run for their money. I've always felt Dailey was severely underrated as a musical comedy performer and he really gets a chance to shine here. His dancing style is very special...he has the lighter than air touch of Astaire combined with that glorious spontaneous style of Donald O'Connor, where he never looks like he's counting, he looks like he's making up the dance as he goes along. And yes, we get more than ample opportunity to check out the million dollar legs of Betty Grable, which are generously on display here.
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Musical highlights include "Daddy You've Been a Mother to Me", "Berlington Bertie from Bow", "You Do", and "We're a Couple of Broadway Brothers." For some reason daughter Iris, played by Mona Freeman is allowed to sing two verses of "Silent Night", a number which brings the film to a dead halt (Freeman's singing is dubbed by Imogene Lynn).
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Fox and director Walter Lang put a lot of care into production values, including lavish set direction and costumes. Dailey and Grable are so magic together that they would reunite for Call Me Mister, When My Baby Smiles at Me, and My Blue Heaven. Their musical numbers here are a lot of fun; unfortunately, when Frank and Myrtle leave the vaudeville stage, so does a lot of the film's appeal. 2.5

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Freaky
The slasher movie gets a complex yet inventive makeover with Freaky, a deliciously black comedy spoof that re-invents the slasher genre by borrowing elements from other genres and films into a near perfect mashup of laughs and thrills, despite a dangling plot point here and there.
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The 2020 film is set in the fictional town of Blissfield where we witness a deranged serial killer known as The Butcher brutally murder four teenagers in order to get his hands on a mystical dagger. He then attempts to murder another misfit teenager named Millie with said dagger. Though he fails to kill her, the contact with the dagger somehow causes Millie and the Butcher to switch bodies. After doing major damage throughout town, the dagger ends up in police custody while Millie and her besties google the dagger and find out if the don't retrieve the dagger and stab the butcher with it within 24 hours, the body switch will become permanent.
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A big bouquet to director and co-screenwriter Christopher Landon for coming up with this surprisingly riveting comic thriller that borrows heavily from other genres and other films with a tongue-in-cheek sensibility that makes the story feel original and keeps the viewer on its toes with laugh-out loud humor in one scene and grisly, stomach-churning violence the next.
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The story is smartly constructed in ways we don't see coming. The exposition provided at the beginning of the film sets up the villians of the piece perfectly, so that we know when the time comes, who's going to get it, even though we're never sue when or how. Also enjoyed the fact that there was little or no collateral damage in the story. As grisly and uncompromising as the violence is here, the only characters who end up victims are the ones who are set up during the exposition. We even get the occasional respite that should slow the film down but doesn't...loved when Millie, already inside the Butcher, connects with her mother, outside of a department store dressing room.
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Christopher Landon's direction is smart and imaginative, with some wonderful camerawork that is completely merciless in its depiction of the story's carnage. He also some manages to make us completely believe the body switch that is the crux of the story. It's never made clear why the Butcher is targeting Millie, but it becomes irrelevant pretty quickly.
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Vince Vaughn is completely winning as the Butcher and is quite convincing as his character becomes a teenage. Kathryn Newton, who had a memorable cameo as Frances McDormand's daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, does a star-making turn as Millie. Shout-outs as well to Misha Osherovich as Millie's gay BFF, Katie Finneran as Millie's mom, and in a memorable cameo as Millie's nasty shop teacher, Alan Ruck, who became a star playing Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There are an unanswered question here and there, but I was on the edge of my chair for the entire running team. 3.5

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Monster's Ball
Emotionally charged direction and strong performances keep 2001's Monster's Ball, a tale of racism, loss, and guilt watchable despite an ambiguous screenplay that doesn't completely commit the way it should.
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After the execution of a sensitive black criminal and a personal tragedy, a corrections officer named Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), quits his job and finds himself reevaluating his entire belief system while finding himself accidently drawn into a relationship with the widow of the man that was just executed (Halle Berry).
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The screenplay by Milo Addica and Will Rokos actually received an Oscar nomination, though I found it to be the weakest element of the production. Most films spend too much time with exposition, establishing the characters and backstory, but I don't think this one spent enough. The deeply troubled relationship between Hank and his brother, Sonny (the late Heath Ledger) is obvious but the viewer is never given privy to its roots. Almost the first third of the film is devoted to this man's final hours before the electric chair, but curiosity was aroused as to what led him to death row and even if he was truly guilty, since the racism among the prison staff was on display without apology. The conclusion of the story is a little fuzzy too, as we watch the widow go through a huge reveal, but keeps her feeling from Hank.
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Director Marc Forster (Finding Netherland) does try to fill in some of the blanks left by the screenplay with a camera that really gets inside most of these characters, who are all terribly flawed and not very nice people. Forster's direction is much more instrumental in making us accept the relationship between Hank and this woman than the screenplay is. The way it's played, Forster wants us to decide if the relationship between Hank and this widow, Leticia, is a product of guilt, loneliness, or genuine romance.
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The film is famous for a surprisingly graphic sex scene between Thornton and Berry that is expertly edited and performed by the stars and, for my money, one of the most realistic sex scenes I have ever witnessed. It's realistic because it is about sex...it's not about love or passion, it's about loneliness and a genuine desire to satisfy a physical need. Watch right before the scene begins where the two are sitting on the sofa and Hank tentatively puts his hand on Leticia's back two or three times and quickly pulls away. It was refreshing to see a sex scene that was about sex and nothing more and the difference between this scene and the next time they have sex was like night day.
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Halle Berry made history when she became the first African American woman to win the Oscar for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role. It's a solid performance, but not sure if it was really Oscar-worthy...looking at the other nominees that year, was she really better than Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom or even Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge? I think this win came from a couple of places. First of all, the Academy was taking a lot of flack at the time (and still are) regarding diversity among the winners. Lead Actor that year went to an African American as well (Denzel Washington for Training Day). Second, Berry was seriously cast against type in a seriously de-glammed role that was like nothing she had ever done.
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Thornton is beautifully understated as Hank and Ledger should have received a supporting actor nomination for his troubled Sonny. Mention should also be made of the impressive film debut of Sean "Puffy" Combs as the death row inmate and the late Peter Boyle as Hank's nasty, bigoted father. The subject matter is unpleasant but the direction and performances definitely make it worth watching. 3.5

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Here Today
After 46 years in the business, Billy Crystal still displays filmmaking skills as the director, co-screenwriter, and star of a quirky and sentimental comedy-drama called Here Today, where just about everything works...except the leading lady.
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The 2021 film stars Crystal as Charlie Burnz, a former screenwriter and playwright whose best days are behind him and is now working as the senior writer on an SNL-type comedy show where he is pretty much ignored. As Charlie struggles with maintaining relevance in the business, he is also struggling with dementia that is terrifying him. Charlie begins to take one step out of the past when he meets a loud-mouthed black street singer named Emma (Tiffany Haddish) who he forms an unusual bond with that cannot really be classified.
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Crystal and co-screenwriter Alan Zweibel (who also appears in the film as a writer on the comedy show) really score in the creation of this central character. Establishing the character as show biz legend on the cusp of being a has been is a bit cliched (Charlie refuses to use a computer and still writes on a beat up typewriter), but we empathize with the character without pitying him. The other refreshing aspect of Charlie is that even though he is frightened about what dementia is doing to him, he is not in denial about it. He has bulletin board in his house with his children's picture and their names on post-its next to their pictures. I also liked the fact that even though he is pretty much just a figure head at his job, he's grateful to still be working and not into rocking the boat.
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What just doesn't work for me is this relationship he develops with this woman Emma. The woman swears like a sailor, is half his age, knows nothing about him or his career, and for most of the running time, insists on referring to him as "Old Man" and it never occurs to her how insensitive that moniker might be, though he says nothing. I've seen relationships between characters in movies that didn't make sense before, but I just couldn't get on board with these two people finding common ground. I actually shuddered during the scene where Charlie asks Emma to be his date for his granddaughter's bat mitzvah, because I knew it had disaster written all over it...and the way she took over at the event was silly and unbelievable.
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Crystal could have removed the Emma character from the story completely and spent more screentime with two really charming subplots: There's one writer on the staff named Darrell who worships Charlie and listens when Charlie suggests there is a comedy character in Darrell's personal life. There's also an actor on the show who when he pronounces words, always puts the accent on the wrong words or syllables, which makes Charlie and insane and leads to the film's funniest scene.
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Crystal's performance is funny and heartbreaking...the brief scene where he gets detoured on his morning walk is so sad. Also loved Tony winner Laura Benanti as his tightly wound daughter and Anna Deveare Smith as his therapist, but every moment Haddish has onscreen takes me out of a really lovely story. 3

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The Chase (1966)
The crime drama and the melodrama are blended to remarkable effect in a minor classic from 1966 called The Chase that is a little longer than it needs to be, but remains completely watchable due to the professionalism in front of and behind the camera.
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The film, based on a novel by Horton Foote, follows what happens when a convict named Bubber Reeves (Robert Redford), escapes from jail after serving 2 years of a 3 year sentence and the powerful reverberations that news of his escape has on his small southern hometown. Among those most seriously affected, are Bubber's wife, Anna (Jane Fonda), who since Bubber's arrest has been having an affair with Bubber's childhood BFF, Jake (James Fox), who is the son of the bank president and town's wealthiest citizen, Val Rogers (EG Marshall), who the townspeople think controls the actions of Sheriff Calder (Marlon Brando), who wants to bring Bubber in alive, even though he is believed to have committed a murder during the escape, which makes the rest of the town want him dead.
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The film benefits from a rich screenplay by the legendary Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes) that brilliantly lays out how an entire town is affected by one man's escape from prison while simultaneously providing backstory for Bubber. As each character in the story is revealed, we get a little more insight into who Bubber is and how he might not be the dangerous criminal he appears to be on the surface. An interesting layer is added to the story when the local teenagers start treating Bubber as some kind of folk hero, adding fuel to an already dangerous fire leading to an unapologetic finale that we don't see coming.
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Director Arthur Penn, who would follow this film with his masterpiece Bonnie and Clyde takes the time to let the story unfold in front of us slowly enough for us to get acquainted with the dozens off characters that become part of this complex canvas. Penn oversees some solid camerawork here resulting in some gorgeous cinematic photographs. There's a shot of Bubba crossing a swamp with the sun setting in the background that is nothing short of breathtaking.
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Penn also gets solid performances from his impressive all-star cast. The IMDB reveals that Brando didn't like the Calder character, but it doesn't make his performance any less compelling and Redford impresses in the physically demanding role of Bubber that frames the story. Fonda's role as his wife is thankless, but she makes the most of it (Fonda and Redford also appeared together the same year, in very different role, in Barefoot in the Park). There is some flashy supporting work provided by Janice Rule, Robert Duvall, Angie Dickinson, Miriam Hopkins, and if you don't blink you'll catch a glimpse of future Oscar and Grammy winning singer and composer Paul Williams as one of the troublesome teens. Fans of films like The Long Hot Summer will have a head start here. 3.5

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The God Committee
The 2021 drama The God Committee is a compelling story centered around an emotionally charged subject; unfortunately budget limitations really keep this film from being the truly important cinematic experience it should have been.
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A teenager is hit by a car and dies. He's revealed to be an organ donor and we see his heart being transported to a large metropolitan hospital but the intended recipient of the heart dies before the heart arrives, leaving the heart available for three other possible recipients. The decision of which recipient should get the heart falls on the hospital's transplant committee. It's revealed that one of the possible recipients is not really interested in a new heart. The other two are an overweight man who should have lost weight, making the transplant a risk and the other is a drug addict with a pregnant girlfriend who he has been abusing. Normally, anyone use drugs is instantly ineligible for a transplant, but the father of this addict is a billionaire who has offered the hospital $25 million dollars if his son receives the heart.
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Director and screenwriter Austin Stark has created a squirm-worthy story, based on a play by Mark St German, which I suspect stretches the story beyond the limits of a proscenium stage by having the story move back and forth through time, including showing us the first day that some of the committee members joined this important part of medical administration. Further layers are added to the story with the reveal that one member of the committee has a personal agenda regarding the recipient and that he also has a personal relationship with another member of the committee. The story even leaps into the future long after the decision is made, revealing the consequences of the committee's decision.
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This film reminded me a lot of a Woody Harrelson film called The Messenger, which had nothing to do with medicine, but conveyed the same kind of sacred and life-altering duty it is serving on this committee, the same way it was a sacred duty in The Messenger to inform loved ones when the soldier in their lives had passed away. This is the primary reason this film actually had this reviewer talking back at the screen due to the possibility of this sacred duty being desecrated by the power of the almighty dollar.
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Unfortunately, this indie project's low budget really dilutes the power of the piece because throughout the entire running time, all I kept thinking was how amazing this film would have been with actors like Cate Blanchett, Christoph Waltz, and Don Cheadle playing the roles played here by Janeane Garafolo, Kelsey Grammer (in a bad hair piece), and Colman Domingo. These actors work very hard to be convincing in their roles, but this story is just a little above their pay grade. It would have been nice to see this film made with A list actors, but as is, still worth a look for the fascinating subject matter. 3

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Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Take the teen romantic comedies of the 1980's, shake them up, and put them inside a video game and what you get is a cinematic assault on the senses called Scott Pilgrim vs the World, an endlessly imaginative piece of movie entertainment from the creative forces behind Shaun of the Dead.
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The title character in this 2010 comedy is a 22 year old bass player in a garage band who loves garlic bread and sleeps in the same bed with his gay roommate. As the story opens. we find Scott being barraged with praise and advice regarding his new relationship with a 17 year old high school student named Knives. Before his relationship with Knives really begins, Scott finds himself obsessed with a girl named Ramona Flowers. However, before he can be with Ramona, he must do battle with her seven ex-boyfriends.
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Director and co-screenwriter Edgar Wright has fashioned this bizarre story from a graphic novel where the story becomes so not what the film is about. The story is presented in the form of a life-sized video game where the central character has to progress from one level to another in order to win the girl of his dreams. The canvas of this cinematic video game provides detailed descriptions of the characters, often accompanied by backstories and video documentation of what most of the central characters are feeling or acting upon. The accustomed fourth wall of film becomes the rules that Scott must follow in order to get what he wants.
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Dialogue is often duplicated on the screen, providing instructions for the viewer and for Scott. Instructions that move at a lightning speed and don't allow the viewer anytime to figure out exactly what they are experiencing. What we end up experiencing is an explosively imaginative visualization of Scott's battle for the lady he loves in the form of individual plateaus our hero must battle and each battle with each ex is presented in a different way. One of Ramona's ex is the romantic lead in a Bollywood musical and another is a sexy action movie star who, instead of battling Scott himself, sends in his stunt doubles to do the work for him.
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Wright refuses to go by the rules here and gets away with it because he keeps things moving at such a lightning pace that I didn't even feel the film's almost two-hour running time. The film is a technical wonder, featuring dazzling art direction, cinematography, visual effects, and editing, that will have even the most proficient techno-geek scratching his head in wonder. We even have the fight audio bubbles, similar to what happened during the fight scenes on the old Batman TV series.
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The film is rich with once and future stars, headed by Michael Cera, who lights up the screen in the title role. Mary Elizabeth Winstead impresses with her icy Ramona Flowers and Kieran Culkin steals every scene he's in as Scott's gay roommate. Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzmann, and Allison Pill make the most of their roles, but it is the demented imagination of Edgar Wright that is the real star here. 4

[Gideon58]

Friends: The Reunion
Fans have been clamoring for it the entire 17 years since the show went off the air, but they finally get some closure with 2021's Friends: The Reunion, a thorough and inventive look back at the iconic NBC sitcom that ran for 1994 to 2004.
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The movie's slightly cute opening shows the six stars of the show walking into the studio and wandering around the set, looking at it like they had never seen it before. They try their best to make it look spontaneous, but that was kind of hard to buy since most of their body mikes were visible to the camera. It was here we learned that Courtney Cox used to write her lines on the kitchen table and before one taping, Matt LeBlanc erased them just to piss her off.
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The documentary then moves into a live audience reunion, hosted by James Corden, with Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer seated on that famous sofa in front of the famous fountain from the opening credits. Corden's ass-kissing of the cast was kind of annoying, but surprises appearances from Maggie Wheeler, who played Janice, Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles, who played Ross and Monica's parents, and James Michel Tyler (Gunther) made it a lot more fun. A trivia game played by the stars also prompted a cameo from Tom Selleck, who appeared on the show as Richard, a pre-Chandler love interest of Monica.
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My favorite part of the film was when the cast sat around a table and read the scripts of their favorite episodes, spliced together with the actual episodes they were reading, We also got glimpses of the favorite episodes of Reese Witherspoon, David Beckham, and Mindy Kaling. The international appeal of the show was also addressed as several people from all over the world were interviewed about how the show affected their lives. There was also an awesome salute to Phoebe's song "Smelly Cat" that featured a special guest star that stopped the show.
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Interviews with the show's creators, Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane revealed a lot of inside dope on the show, including the reveal that two of the six stars were already working on other shows at the time casting for this show began. Of course, the expected outtakes were also provided, including the final take of a scene where Matt LeBlanc actually tripped and dislocated his shoulder.
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Full disclosure, I didn't watch this show during its original run on NBC, but did discover it in syndication, and though I wouldn't consider myself a full blown fan, I found this documentary to be joyous and felt a lot of the emotions that were brought up for the stars and creators. For true fans of the show, this is appointment viewing. 4.5

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Just Tell Me What You Want
An underrated and nearly forgotten gem from the resume of Sidney Lumet, Just Tell Me What You Want is a caustic and sophisticated tale of corporate and sexual politics that is quite watchable, despite a hard to swallow ending, thanks to an absolutely winning cast.
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The 1980 comedy-drama stars Alan King as Max Herschel, a ruthless, sexist, powerful, egotistical business tycoon who has his emotionally unstable wife institutionalized and for the last 14 years, has been in a volatile relationship with a smart and sexy woman named Bones Burton (Ali MacGraw), who, thanks to Max, lives a lavish lifestyle, which includes a lucrative career as a television producer. When a chance to get into movies is blocked by Max, Bones retaliates by beginning a relationship with a handsome young playwright (Peter Weller).
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Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the screenplay for Cabaret wrote the novel that she adapted into a mean-spirited story of movers and shakers in the corporate and entertainment industries who, sadly, do a lot of their thinking below the waist, leading to often unscrupulous behavior, creating a canvas of not very nice people who do a lot of dirt in the name of self-preservation and have the nerve to be shocked when their ugly behavior motivates responses they don't expect.
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The only problem with this story is its underlying air of predictability...Bones has been given a very comfortable lifestyle thanks to Max and seems to have forgotten that without Max, she would have nothing. On the other hand, Max thinks he has purchased Bones lock, stock, and barrel and doesn't expect anything but unconditional obedience from her. Max and Bones have both made their own beds and the story seems to want us to side with one of them, which this reviewer was unable to do, which added to the story's value. Unfortunately, after everything we had witnessed here, it was a hard to buy the somewhat happy ending.
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We're able to forgive to a point thanks to the undeniable style of director Sidney Lumet, who dresses up this often ugly story with first rate production values and some really spectacular performances. Though his career as an actor was sparse, Alan King knocks it out of the park here with his kinetic and explosive performance as Max. Lumet also manages to get the closest thing to an actual performance out of Ali MacGraw that I've ever seen as Bones. Keenan Wynn, Tony Roberts, and Judy Kaye score in supporting roles, as does the legendary Myrna Loy, in her final theatrical film appearance, as Max's devoted personal assistant. A slick and smart film that provides solid entertainment most of the way. 3.5

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Joe Bell
Though based on a real life tragedy, the 2021 film Joe Bell is a preachy and pretentious melodrama attempting to deliver an important message that gets buried by overheated direction and the absence of a critical plot point that buried the film's wonderful intentions and made the entire film ring hollow.
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Star and executive producer Mark Wahlberg does put some thought into this cinematic rendering of the true events leading up to the father of a teenage boy's decision to travel on foot from his home in Oregon to New York City, as a protest over the bullying of his gay son, making periodic stops and giving speeches at high schools and town hall meetings regarding the dangers of intolerance.
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The final project of legendary novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, along with Diana Ossana, focuses on a true tragedy and have recreated a lot of the events that destroyed young Jadin Bell. The tragedy that unfolds has a definite air of predictability that is evident from the beginning of the film where we witness Jadin come out to his father and this is where the primary problem with the film lies for me. It almost seems to place the blame on Jadin's shoulders as Jadin picks a really inappropriate time and place to come out to his father, whose mind is on a football game the conversation is keeping him from. Joe feigns acceptance, but there is never a moment in the film where we actually see Joe accept who Jadin was, making his cross country journey pointless. The first speech we see him make in a high school auditorium seems to go right over their heads and we really don't blame the kids, because Joe is trying to protest something he really doesn't understand.
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The presentation of the Jadin character is a little on the cliched side too. It was offensive to see Reid Miller, the actor playing Jadin, made up with way too much rouge on his cheeks and bright red lipstick. Jadin is part of a portion of the screenplay that does work for me...his attempt at romance with a closeted gay athlete at his school, the only part of the movie that really worked for me,
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Wahlberg never completely convinces as the title character and director Reinaldo Marcus Green has to take partial blame for that, though Miller is terrific as Jadin. Gary Sinise also makes the most of his cameo as a sympathetic sheriff whose role in the story comes off as way too convenient. Good intentions notwithstanding, this film falters under a preachy screenplay delivered with a sledgehammer. 2.5

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The Perfect Furlough
Breezy direction from a comedy veteran and rock solid chemistry between the stars (who were married IRL at the time) make a 1958 romantic comedy called The Perfect Furlough worth a look despite rampant predictability.
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There are 104 sex-starved soldiers on a special assignment in the arctic who desperately need some R&R and the Army can't release them all, so an Army psychologist named Lieutenant Vicki Loren (Janet Leigh) decides to pull a Bye Bye Birdie and choose one soldier out of the 104 to go on the "perfect" furlough, which they've decided is three weeks in Paris with an Argentine movie star named Sandra Roca (Linda Cristal). Unfortunately, the soldier who wins the furlough, Paul Hodges (Tony Curtis) has a well-documented history with the ladies that forces Lt. Loren to accompany Hodes and Sandra to Paris.
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The fluffy screenplay is provided by Stanley Shapiro, who won an Oscar the following year for writing Pillow Talk. The story is paper thin and doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny. It's not really clear how sending one guy to Paris for three weeks was supposed to help the other 103 guys up north, but the story moves quickly enough so that you don't have time to ponder this.
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The initial scenes of Curtis and Cristal in Paris being kept apart by the army and Sandra's publicist (Elaine Stritch) are quite funny. We begin to wonder how Paul and Vicki are going to be brought together, since their relationship starts out pretty much like Hawkeye and Hot Lips on MASH. It's funny watching Vicki's icy exterior eventually thaw to the point where the girl almost forgets she's a military officer.
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The budget here must have been somewhat limited because even though most of the film is set in Paris, it's clear that this film never left the Universal sound stages. Blake Edward's proven tough at light comedy helps as does the off-the-charts chemistry between Curtis and Leigh, who would make four more films together before they divorced in 1962. Nothing new here, but fans of the stars (especially Curtis who has rarely been sexier onscreen), will enjoy themselves. 3

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Tom and Jerry: The Movie
Despite a huge budget and some first rate production values, 2021's Tom and Jerry: The Movie is a confusing and exhausting return to the big screen the classic cartoon characters originally introduced to movie audiences by MGM in the 1940's. Unfortunately, this reincarnation of the characters suffers from a seriously complex screenplay that tries way too hard and makes the movie seem three hours long.
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After a tumultuous meeting in Central Park, Tom the Cat and Jerry Mouse both attempt to take refuge at luxurious Royal Gate Hotel (which looks a lot like The Plaza). Meanwhile, a streetwise young woman named Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz) cons her way into a job at the hotel just in time to assist in the planning of an elaborate wedding to take place there. Kayla learns that Jerry is residing in the hotel and hires Tom, who she ran into (literally) in Central Park, to get rid of Jerry before the wedding. Kayla also finds herself trying to keep the prospective bride and groom happy, especially the groom , who is trying to turn this wedding into a gargantuan production from hell.
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Kevin Costello, who wrote a 2017 film I really liked called Brigsby Bear, really lets this endlessly confusing story get away from him to the point that this reviewer seriously thought about checking out halfway through. First of all, Costello and director Tim Story (Barbershop)) have decided to just discard the rich history of the title characters, created by Hanna and Barbera some 70 years ago and have them meet for the first time in this story, which combines live action and animation ala Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but it's hard to distinguish what we're supposed to accept as real and what is supposed to be movie magic.
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More importantly, the story abandons the relationship established by Tom and Jerry creators back in the 40's. When they were originally created, Tom and Jerry were sworn enemies and about halfway through this film, the cat and mouse find themselves working together to save this wedding. Even Spike the Dog, who protected Jerry in the original cartoons, is brought in here as the loyal pet of the groom. Spike is even given a voice here, while Tom and Jerry remain unable to speak, as they were originally.
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It's fun seeing Tom and Jerry onscreen but the story of Kayla and this elaborate wedding never connect properly with Tom and Jerry and produce a lot of dangling plot lines...at one point, we learn the bride's engagement ring is missing and Jerry has it, but I totally didn't catch how it happened.
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There are occasional giggles, but this movie mainly had me checking my watch. There are a couple of terrific performances by Michael Pena as the hotel's events manager and SNL's Colin Jost as the empty-headed groom. Liked Jordan Bolger as the bartender and Bobby Cannavale as the voice of Spike, but Ken Jeong annoys, as always, as the hotel chef. Oh, and that's Lil Rel Howery as the voice of the angel and devil on Tom's shoulders.
The hip hop influenced song score doesn't match the story at all. A lot of work went into this, but it's basically a waste of a lot of money. 2

[gbgoodies]

I've never been a big fan of Tom and Jerry, but I like the movies where they put them into a classic movie, like Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz and Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse. I haven't seen Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it eventually.

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Obsessed (2009)
Only hardcore Idris Elba fans will be able to tolerate 2009's Obsession a glossy but over heated and rampantly predictable erotic thriller that worked much better when it was called Fatal Attraction.
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Elba plays Derek Charles, a high-powered business executive who has just moved into a new house with his wife, Sharon (Beyonce Knowles) and their infant son. A sexy blonde temp named Lisa (Ali Larter) starts work at Derek's office and almost immediately begins stalking the guy.
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Screenwriter David Loughery must be obsessed with the movie Fatal Attraction as Lisa is with Derek in this movie. Eleven years later, he wrote another Fatal Attraction rip-off called Fatale that is even worse than this. Loughery must think audiences aren't bright enough to notice that the only difference between these films and the 1987 Best Picture nominee is that the principal characters are interracial.
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There are lame attempts by Loughery to give the film some degree of originality, but we never buy any of it. Loughery spoon-feeds us every single element of the well-worn story and even adds layers that aren't even necessary. The movie takes way too long to get moving because Loughery and director Steve Shill spend way too much time showing us how happy Derek and Sharon are. Another unnecessary element added to the story is making the Sharon character a neurotic and insecure woman so worried about her husband cheating on her that she has ordered him to never have a female secretary.
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Of course, we try to empathize with Derek's situation, but it's hard to because his brain is removed for the majority of the running time. After watching him tell anyone who will listen to him how happily married he is, he finds himself caught in a men's room stall with crazy Lisa. It also doesn't help that everything Lisa does to get Derek is the exact same schemes that Alex Forrest used against Dan Gallagher. And the final showdown between the ladies just produces unintentional giggles.
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Elba's smoking hot presence is the only thing that really keeps the viewer invested in this mess. Beyonce continues to prove that the camera loves her, but she can't act. Larter works hard at playing crazy, but we never really buy her attraction to Elba. First rate production values do nothing to disguise the fact that this is a blatant ripoff of another much better movie. 2

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All My Life
As a movie genre, the romance drama is pretty much on life support, but an authentic attempt to revive the genre is made with 2020's All My Life, a fact-based romantic drama that's sometimes aggravating story is almost forgiven thanks to the chemistry of the stars.
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Solomon "Sol" Chau and Jennifer Carter are upwardly mobiles who meet, begin seeing each other, fall in love and eventually become engaged. Unfortunately, their wedding plans begin to derail when Sol is diagnosed with liver cancer.
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Screenwriter Todd Rosenberg's crafting of this real life love story for the screen is smart and contemporary, even though it might unfold a little too slowly. We're almost forty-five minutes into this movie before what's going on is really revealed. Rosenberg gives us the relationship between Sol and Jenn in intimate detail and has no qualms about the time he takes to do so. The story makes sure that the viewer is is in love with Sol and Jenn as they are with each other.
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Unfortunately, it is at this point where the movie moves into some hard-to-swallow developments as well into a mawkish melodrama that is completely absent from the first half of the film. It's odd the way once the news of Sol's illness is revealed to the couple's small circle of friends take it upon themselves to raise the money they need for the wedding like something out of a Mickey Rooney Judy Garland musical. It was odd watching their friends deciding how Sol and Jenn should handle this, not to mention Sol's back and forth feelings about it. Despite his mature handling of the revelation of what's happening, one scene he wants to go full steam ahead with the wedding and the next he just wants to pack a suitcase of medication and go away to die alone. And on top of all that, the control freak in Jenn refuses to accept any of this is happening and has decided that Sol is not allowed to die because she says so.
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Even though we know where the story is going, it is handled with discretion and taste and I LOVED the videotape farewell Sol left for Jenn. Marc Meyers provides sensitive direction to this sometimes troubling romance that helps the viewer stay invested. Harry Shum Jr., who spent six years dancing in the background on the FOX series Glee gives a star-making performance as Sol, a man who faces his illness with dignity for the most part. Jessica Rothe is lovely and funny as Jenn, creating a solid chemistry with Harry Shum Jr. Former SNL regulars Jay Pharoah and Jon Rudnitsky have supporting roles and there's also a terrific cameo by Keala Seattle, who stole The Greatest Showman from Hugh Jackman as the Bearded Lady, who is even allowed to sing. It's a little on the sudsy side, but watchable. 3

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Flamingo Road
Cinematic soap opera in its purest form, the 1949 melodrama Flamingo Road is an old fashioned tale of ambition, corruption, politics, and redemption that reunites the stars and director of Mildred Pierce.
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Joan Crawford stars as Lane Bellamy, a former carnival dancer who finds herself drawn into a romance with Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott), a weak-willed deputy sheriff with political ambitions whose career is under the thumb of the corrupt sheriff Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet). Titus thinks Lane is a cog in his own political agenda and manages to get her out of Fielding's life. Lane eventually finds a way out of her past into the good life when she meets another politician named Dan Reynolds (David Brian), but their happiness is short-lived as Lane's past begins to catch up with her in more ways than one.
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Michael Curtiz, who directed Crawford to her only Oscar in Mildred Pierce has mounted an expensive and glamorous look at a woman trying to claw her way to social acceptance but finding a quest for wealth and power (symbolized by moving into a fancy house on Flamingo Road) impeded by one guy with all the wealth and power. The power that this Titus Semple character wields over the other characters in this film is quite impressive and he barely breaks a sweat doing it. Right before the climax of the film, we see Semple calmly playing solitaire and drinking milk...for some reason at this point of the film, I expected to see him sitting in on of those large straw chairs stroking a white cat with one hand and twirling his mustache with the other.
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Crawford seemed to have a lot of input into her character for this film, because she looks absolutely incredible in this film and though there are other characters involved in this story of corruption of an entire town, the story always very conveniently circles back to Lane and her part in other characters' downfall. When we meet Lane, she's sleeping in an abandoned tent and before the film ends, she is observed as a waitress, a hostess in a road house, a convicted inmate, and the mistress of a huge mansion with maids in every room. The role is an actress' dream.
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Crawford is given one of the flashiest roles of her career and she runs with it. Zachary Scott, who starred with Crawford in Mildred Pierce makes the most out of the thankless role of Fielding Carlisle and for once, David Brian gets to play a character where he actually does get the girl. Gladys George is a lot of fun as the owner of the road house and there's an appearance by Fred Clark as a reporter, in his 8th film appearance. The film was even re-imagined as a prime time TV soap opera in 1980 with Mark Harmon as Fielding, Cristina Raines as Lane, and Howard Duff as Titus. Crawford fans will eat it up. 3.5

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Nowhere Special
A fact based production from Ireland, Britain, Italy, and Romania, the 2020 drama Nowhere Special is a tragic and bittersweet family drama that ran roughshod over my emotions, on the same level as Parasite and Minari. This film was either robbed of a Foreign Film Oscar nomination last year, or is the first serious contender for a nomination this year.
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John is a professional window washer who has been raising his three year old son, Michael, since his mother walked out on them shortly after his birth. John is already wracked with guilt over the fact that his son is growing up without a mother but is further agonized when he learns he has a terminal illness and has to decide on a foster family to take Michael in when he dies.
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This film is a triumph for producer, director, and screenwriter Uberto Pasolini, who produced the 1998 Best Picture nominee The Full Monty, wearing all the hats here, crafting an emotionally charged tale of a father, truly stepping up, similar to the way Ted Kramer did in Kramer VS Kramer. As a matter of fact there's a scene in this film involving a bowl of cereal that reminded me of the ice cream scene in the Robert Benton classic, but this movie takes what happens to Ted and Billy to several different levels. Imagine, the 1979 Best Picture winner if Joanna Kramer had never returned for her son and Ted found out he wasn't going to be available to care for Billy either.
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This story is so sad because John is determined to do the right thing for his son, as the story blends scenes of his life with Michael seamlessly with John's interviews with possible foster parents for Michael. John complicates things because he doesn't want Michael to know that he's sick, yet brings Michael along on these interviews, which just confuses and bewilders the boy because he's content with things just the way they are.
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I loved that the possible foster candidates were all very different, especially a couple where the wife wants to do this, but her husband really doesn't. Pasolini is also meticulous in documenting the progress of John's sickness...my heart stopped during a scene where John was atop a ladder washing a window and a stabbing pain coursed through him. Admittedly, the film requires complete attention due to thick Irish brogues from most of the actors. Fortunately, it's not an issue with Michael, whose huge expressive eyes convey every emotion they're supposed to.
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Pasolini paid a lot of attention to production values, including the gorgeous Irish scenery that made this location look like the best place to live on earth. James Norton, who appeared in Greta Gerwig's Little Women gives an Oscar-calibre performance as the sensitive single dad and Daniel Lamont is seriously adorable as Michael, creating the most compelling father/son relationship I've seen in a long time. A very special motion picture experience that left me emotionally spent. 4.5

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City Slickers
After his smash hit When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal teamed with the writers of Splash and the director of White Men Can't Jump for 1991's City Slickers, a rowdy tale of friendship set against a western canvas that provides solid entertainment courtesy some clever writing and colorful characters.
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Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby play three buddies on the cusp of middle age, who decide to participate in an actual cattle drive for two weeks, traveling from New Mexico to Colorado, along with father and son dentists, a pair of ice cream manufacturers, and a romantically challenged young woman. After learning the rigors of horseback riding and cattle roping, the group find themselves intimidated by the creepy trail boss named Curley (Jack Palance) who scares the hell out of the timid guests.
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The screenplay is credited to Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; however, as always with Crystal, I'm sure he had a hand in this carefully crafted story that deserves credit for establishing the fact that the three leads are three very different kind of people: Crystal's character is happily married but is feeling the beginning mid-life; Stern's character is trapped in a marriage to an emasculating shrew who's now divorcing him because he got a girl pregnant; Kirby's character is a commitment phobe who loves women half his age and even though he's married to an underwear model, still isn't ready to settle down. Somehow, the kind of people they are gets challenged during down moments on the cattle drive. The exposition is well done, though it might go on a tad too long.
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Director Underwood, accustomed to directing sports-oriented comedies, proved to be the perfect choice to direct this comedy which involved a lot of complicated physical comedy and the mammoth task of mounting an actual cattle drive, something we weren't used to in the 1990's. Even with all the wild physical comedy, there are scenes of quiet and warmth that are quite moving...love when Crystal helps a cow deliver a calf and the scene where the three leads talk about the best and worst days of their lives.
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Crystal lights up the screen, as always, but almost has his thunder stolen by Stern, in the performance of his career as the seriously whipped husband. Jack Palance's charismatic turn as Curley actually won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, though I think the award was more sentiment than based on the performance itself. Loved David Paymer and Josh Mostel as the ice cream makers and if you look real close, that little boy in the opening scenes playing Crystal's son, is Jake Gyllenhaal, in his film debut. Dean Semier's cinematography and Marc Shaiman's music are the finishing touches on this contemporary comedy with a classic cinema sensibility. 3.5

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Annette
The movie musical genre gets mangled beyond recognition with 2021's Annette, a dark and disturbing musical fantasy that makes no attempt at any semblance of realism , but held this reviewer's attention thanks to its unconventional musical score and an extraordinary performance from the leading man.
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The bizarre story introduces the viewer to Henry, an angry and self-destructive stand up comedian (Adam Driver), who performs onstage in a bathrobe. Henry has a whirlwind romance and marries a beautiful opera singer named Ann (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard). They have a baby girl together that they name Annette, who is immediately tagged by her parents and by the media as a "miracle baby". The attention that Annette receives prompts a very dangerous agenda by her father.
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Like one of the musicals this film reminded me of, Jesus Christ Superstar, the screenplay and score for this film is actually based on a record album by a pop duo called The Sparks, who provided the undeniably unique musical score for this film which brought all kinds of musical influences to mind as the musical numbers were performed...Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Pete Townsend were among the composers whose style could be felt in this one-of-a-kind song score that is more successful at advancing the story than it is in providing memorable music.
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There's particular plot points that aren't addressed efficiently or not at all. First of all, the presentation of the title character, when we first meet her she doesn't look human, more like a doll or a marionette, but we don't know why because she is treated as human throughout most of the running time. There's also a point in the story where Henry is accused of sexually harassing six women in a bizarre musical number and then is never mentioned again, adding to the film's severe overlength,
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Most of the musical numbers are imaginatively staged...Henry's stage performances where he interacts with the audience are often unsettling. Henry and Ann even perform one number while they are naked and having sex, something I don't recall seeing in a musical before. The music has a dark and operatic feel and is often purposely unnerving. Musical highlights included "So May We Start", "She's Out of this World, "True Love Will A Way", and "I Will Haunt You Henry".
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Director Leos Carax has provided this disturbing story with spectacular production values, with special nods to art direction and editing. He also gets a blistering performance from Adam Driver as Henry, a frighteningly unhinged performance that galvanizes the screen and helps the viewer forget how little of what we're watching makes sense. Carax loses focus at times making the film a lot longer than it needs to be, but I never took my eyes off the screen. Not for all tastes, but fans of Hamilton and Tommy will have a head start. 3

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Wonder Man
Despite an energetic performance from Danny Kaye in a dual role, the 1945 comedy Wonder Man suffers from an overly complicated screenplay that often substitutes cheap laughs for logic and continuity.
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Kaye plays a nightclub comic named Buster, who is about to testify in a trial regarding a murder he witnessed but before he can, he is murdered by gangsters. Before anyone realizes what happened to Buster, he manages to contact his nerdy, egghead twin brother, Edwin, begging him to help get the guys who murdered him. Of course, this causes endless problems for Edwin's relationship with a pretty librarian named Ellen and Buster's engagement to a pretty dancer named Midge.
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The basic idea of this film is a good one, but perhaps too many cooks in the pot (six people are credited with the crafting of this story) might have been a contributing factor to some real gaps in logic that nagged at me throughout. Buster tells Edwin in the way too long scene where they come face to face, that he can enter Edwin's body anytime he needs to, but for some reason, every time Edwin gets in a real tight spot, Buster is nowhere to be found. Buster also tells Edwin in that same scene, that Edwin is the only one who can see or hear him. Later in the film, we see a drunk Buster trying to get a bartender to serve him a bromo. Not to mention, how would Edwin getting drunk get Buster drunk. There is also no explanation as to why Edwin's mission to help his brother gets interrupted when the words "potato salad" pop into his head, causing him to rush back to Ellen.
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In addition to the six writers credited to the script, there seems to be a lot of stuff here that Kaye himself contributed and couldn't have possibly been scripted and director Bruce Humberstone just let Kaye go. Sadly, a lot of this stuff, like impersonating a Russian baritone or a lot of what goes on in the operatic finale, just isn't that funny. It reminded me a lot of Jerry Lewis' more annoying work after he split with Dean Martin.
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On the positive side, with a ghost as a principal character, we are get some effective visual effects for the 1940's that help us forget some of the illogical stuff going on. We also are treated to the film debut of the leggy Vera-Ellen as Midge, who gets two spectacular production numbers that show her off to maximum capacity and a pair of funny performances by Allen Jenkins and Edward Brophy as the thugs who wipe out Buster and don't understand Edwin's appearance. SZ "Cuddles" Sakall also has a cute cameo as a deli owner, but somehow a movie that runs a little over ninety minutes manages to feel three hours long. 3

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Lorelei
Despite solid performances from the stars, a 2020 melodrama called Lorelei never completely engages the viewer due to an unfocused screenplay from an inexperienced filmmaker that borrows from a lot other movies, that seems to be going somewhere and never really gets there.
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Wayland is a former biker and petty criminal who has just been released from jail after 15 years, who is reunited with his high school sweetheart, Delores. Wayland is a little thrown by the fact that Delores is now a single mother of three, the eldest being an angry 15 year old whose father was black.
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This independent production was written and directed by a rookie filmmaker named Sabrina Doyle, but what initially attracted me to this film was the casting of Pablo Schreiber as Wayland. The younger brother of Liev Schreiber did some Emmy-worthy work on the NBC series Law and Order: SVU playing a serial rapist named William Lewis. I've been waiting for his film career to kick in, because he has proven that he has the chops to carry a feature film. He does carry this film for the most part, I just wish the vehicle had been worthy of his talent.
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Doyle's screenplay just doesn't employ anything we haven't seen before, moving at a snail's pace and keeping the viewer wondering where the story is going. We get a couple of red herring fantasy scenes involving Dolores in the water and Wayland being unable to get to her that don't really make sense as they're happening. We like Wayland and are behind him, but the story just never gives the guy a break.
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The credible parts of the story are sadly predictable...we know from the beginning that Wayland trying to start life after a prison and becoming an instant stepfather is never going to work and we shouldn't have to wade through almost two hours of Wayland's struggle that we've seen in so many other movies, that finally arrives at a contrived conclusion that provides some closure, but is a little hard to swallow after everything we had to slog through to get to it. Schreiber's performance is strong and commanding and is well-matched by grown up child star Jena Malone as Delores, but getting through this one is still a bit of a chore. 2.5

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All Night Long (1981)
One of Gene Hackman's richest performances makes a 1981 black comedy called All Night Long worth a look.
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Hackman plays George Dupler, high-powered business executive who has a meltdown where he physically attacks his boss and throws an office chair out of a window. Unable to fire him because of seniority, Dupler gets demoted to a position as the night manager of a 24-hour grocery store. George learns that his son is having an affair with a married neighbor named Cheryl (Barbra Streisand) and when he tries to break up the affair, he ends up involved with the woman himself.
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WD Richter's screenplay has a little more meat than what initially appears on the surface as a standard romantic comedy. This movie is not so much about George's romance with Cheryl as it is about George's midlife crisis. Solid entertainment is provided as we watch George's demotion triggers an awakening inside George where he realizes how trapped he has felt in his life up this point and decides that he doesn't want to play by the rules anymore and this part of the movie really works.
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It's the alleged romance with the Cheryl character that is the troublesome part of the story. George's intentions of keeping his son from getting hurt by this married woman seem completely honorable, but before he knows it, the woman is pursuing him with no abandon and no thought of her husband. And with little explanation, George forsakes everything in his life for Cheryl, while she does a similar 180 and starts pushing George away because she's all of a sudden afraid of her sexist abusive husband.
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Director Jean Claude Tramont, whose career consisted of four theatrical films, keeps things controlled, save one slapsticky robbery scene in the store, and gets some terrific performances from his cast. Hackman is warm and deliciously human, as always and gets terrific support from Diane Ladd as his wife, Dennis Quaid as his empty-headed son, William Daniels as his wife's lawyer, and Kevin Dobson as Cheryl's husband. Streisand's Cheryl didn't really work for me...Streisand is too intelligent a screen presence for this ditzy character. It felt like this role was meant for someone else who was unavailable and Streisand stepped in at the last minute. Her funniest moment in the film is during a scene where she's trying to write a song and pretending to be unable to sing. The story makes a lot of strange twists and turns, but Hackman's performance keeps the viewer invested. 3.5

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Respect
The highly anticipated cinematic salute to the late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin appropriately titled Respect doesn't live up to the hype because, despite the powerhouse pipes of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson fueling the starring role, the movie comes off as just another showbiz biopic.
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Aretha's life is documented from her performances fronting the church choir for her stern preacher father, to a sexual assault as a child which she refused to talk about to her first signing and Columbia Records and her relationship and eventual marriage to agent/manager Ted Smith.
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On paper, Jennifer Hudson and Aretha Franklin seems like the perfect marriage of actress and character but they are hampered by a screenplay that is structured like a hundred other showbiz biopics, featuring every scene you've ever seen in other movies...the rebellion from parents scene, to the "this is the way I want my music done" scene, the "you may be my manager but you don't control me" scene, the success has gone to her head scene, to the going onstage under the influence scene and passing out during a live performance. We've seen it all in other movies and seen it done a lot better than it's done here. We even got a scene of how the title song came to be, just like the scene of how the title song came to be in Bohemian Rhapsody, but there was no way they were going to top that scene, though Jennifer's delivery of the final product was flawless.
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It was hard to get on board with the way Aretha is portrayed here and Hudson doesn't deserve all the blame for this. Director Leisl Tommy and screenwriter Tracy Scott Wilson present Aretha as this painfully shy wallflower afraid to speak up for herself and tell people what she really wants and I just have a hard time believing that Aretha Franklin was ever anything resembling a wallflower.
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And it goes without saying that the relationship between Aretha and Ted White bore more than a passing resemblance to Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne in What's Love Got to Do With It?, though I have to admit the eye-opening performance by Marlon Wayans as Ted White was unlike anything I've ever seen him do, easily the strongest performance of his career.
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Hudson works very hard to be convincing in her non-musical scenes, but the stronger Aretha became, the less effective Hudson became, except when she opened her mouth to sing which was always a pleasure, just like it was in Dreamgirls. Her final rendition of "Amazing Grace" brings the house down. Forrest Whitaker was a little hard to stomach as Aretha's father, but there were a couple of impressive cameos near the opening of the film by Audra McDonald as Aretha's mother and Mary J Blige as Dinah Washington. With a little more imagination paid to the story structure, this could have been something really incredible. 3.5

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The Night of the Following Day
Sizzling performances by the stars are at the heart of 1969's The Night of the Following Day, a moody and economic crime thriller crafted in the form of a cinematic jigsaw puzzle where the viewers are assigned the duty of locating and filling in the missing pieces.
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The film opens with a young woman getting off a plane in Paris and being met by two gentleman who escort her into a limousine. In a matter of minutes, it's revealed that these two men are kidnapping the woman, being aided by a woman the hostage recognized as a stewardess on her flight. The girl is taken to an isolated seaside cottage where it is revealed that a ransom will be demanded from her father and they have no intention of harming her. We then are privy to what happens when a meticulously planned crime starts to fall apart and that the kidnappers are not the cohesive unit they initially appear to be.
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The screenplay, based on a novel called The Snatch by Lionel White, effectively establishes the fact that the kidnapping scheme unfolding before us has been planned down to the very last detail for a long time. We can see that said plan is being followed to the letter but we can also see unexpected complications arise that were not part of said plan. We're about 35 minutes into the running time before we learn exactly who the mastermind behind the scheme is. We see one of the men from the airport, who turns out to be the muscle of the plan, explain to the victim exactly what is going on and that no harm will come to her.
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This is when we learn these kidnappers are not all on the same page where this crime is concerned. The fake stewardess only seems to be involved because of personal relationships to the mastermind and to the chauffeur. The aforementioned muscle has other agendas that eventually come to light, And on top of all this, every time our criminals make a move, they accidentally run into a police officer more than once, who senses wrongdoing, but has no motive to act on it. Just when we think we've got a handle on what's going on, the muscle appears to have more power in the scheme than we originally thought and attempts to turn the tables on the rest of the gang.
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Director ad co-screenwriter does an expert job of establishing the creepy, almost other worldly atmosphere of the story, keeping the story completely in the external...a lot of stories let us inside the heads of the characters, but that never really happens here. The story on the surface is all we get to go on and what we get to go on is that the plan is not going as planned and that someone is going to pay for it, though we don't exactly know who.
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Marlon Brando delivers a smoking and dangerous performance as Bud the chauffeur. This was probably the last of the "Stanley Kowalski" sexy roles Brando would do before succumbing to the eventual obesity he would live with through the rest of his career. Brando is seriously sexy here (with his hair dyed a very flattering blonde) with the accustomed ticking time bomb boiling beneath that sexual bravado. Richard Boone commends the screen in a rare movie role as Leer, the muscle, who shines in that monologue where he explains to the hostage what's going on. Rita Moreno offers one of her strongest performances as the fake stewardess/closet junkie (I believe she and Brando were romantically involved at the time and he was instrumental in her getting this role).
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Pamela Franklin tries to make something out of the hostage role, which was the standout thing abut this movie. This was one of the few movies I've ever seen about a kidnapping that wasn't about the victim and that was what made this film so different and such an interesting watch, not to mention the magic that is Marlon Brando. 3.5

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The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
Strap yourself in, let your mind go blank, and drink in 2021's The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, a big budget action adventure/spy spoof that trades logic and realism for non-stop action and a surprising amount of humor that we don't see coming and sustains itself through the final reel.
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Ryan Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, a disgraced former bodyguard who has lost his license and is so lost without his life's work that it has driven him into therapy. Just as he begins his suggested "sabbatical" from being a bodyguard, he is approached by a voluptuous con artist named named Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek) for Michael's assistance in rescuing her husband, a veteran hitman named Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) who has a long and colorful history with Bryce, so that she and Darius can have a baby. However, their rescue mission complicates an even further mission that they are forced to assist with...the prevention of a deadly virus being planted underground that could destroy the entire continent of Europe.
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I didn't learn until after viewing this film, that is actually a sequel to a 2017 film called The Hitman's Bodyguard, which also starred Reynolds and Jackson. Now the fact that this film is a sequel and I didn't realize it might make one want to watch the first film before viewing this one. But I will say that, without knowing this film was a sequel, I never suspected that it was a sequel and never felt like I missed something or needed something explained, except possibly why Bryce lost his license, but as this film progressed, I found that why he lost his license was irrelevant.
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The screenplay is surprisingly well-constructed, rich with inside jokes about the bodyguard and hitman businesses, and addresses a lot of action movie cliches directly and without apology. The story cleverly combines a world crisis that must be averted with three dimensional, flawed characters at the center, whose personal history gets worked throughout the film with some really clever use of flashbacks, something you don't see in a lot of action movies, but it works here. It's quite clever the way the writers keep the fact that Sonia wants a baby as a through line for the entire film. This is also the first film I have ever seen that references the Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell movie Overboard.
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The movie moves at a lightning clip (at glamorous locations all around the world) until about the halfway point, where we find out heroes stranded in the middle of nowhere. Conveniently, they happen to be very close to where Bryce's father, a famous former bodyguard lives. The casting of this role is genius and the reunion between Bryce and his father is definitely one of the film's highlight.
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Director Patrick Hughes puts careful consideration into production values, which include gorgeous worldwide photography, editing, art direction, and sound. Reynolds is a lot of fun, bringing the same loopy sensibility to Bryce that he did the Deadpool franchise. Salma Hayek lights up the screen as Sonia, the daredevil who is not above using her obvious physical assets to get what she wants. I have never enjoyed Hayek onscreen as much as I did here. Initially, Samuel L Jackson seems a little long in the tooth for this sort of action yarn, but he really seems to be enjoying himself and there are cleverly placed reminders of same from the bad guys that just tick Darius off. I have to admit I'm a little curious about the first film, but don't feel like I have to see the first film to appreciate this one. This movie was a whole lotta fun. 4

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Cashback
The beginning and finale of a 2006 sexually charged British film called Cashback display endless imagination, style, and filmmaking technique, but a detour around the halfway point takes the viewer out of the unique and initially hard-to-swallow cinematic universe to which we have been invited.
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Ben Willis is an aspiring artist who, after a very bitter breakup with his girlfriend, Suzy, develops insomnia, which motivates him to take a job on the night shift at a local supermarket. Ben finds his artistic imagination running wild with the ability to stop time anytime he wants to and makes any adjustments to current circumstance he likes, including his unrequited crush on a fellow employee named Sharon.
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Just like the 2018 Jim Cummings film Thunder Road, this film was based on a short film that producer, director, and screenwriter Sean Ellis was granted the opportunity to expand into a feature film a few years later and he ran with it. This film takes a bold and unabashed look at the male libido and how so much of what motivates the male is rooted in sexual worship as well as sexual fantasy. The story begins looking at Ben's childhood, which features a Swedish exchange student who lived at his house and paraded around the house naked. It's not long before we see Ben freeze framing the activity at the supermarket, and allowing his sexual imagination to command his actions and bring us into his own sexual awakenings.
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Ellis brings us into a sexually provocative world that includes a rarely seen homage to the female form, filmed with an artistic delicacy that I haven't seen. Unfortunately, just as we begin to become completely enveloped in this erotic fantasy, Ellis decides it's time to introduce us to Ben's co-workers, his boss, and their soccer team, wrenching the viewer out of this endlessly imaginative fantasy he has taken so much time bringing us into, and then abruptly bringing us back to the fantasy world we had just begun to accept using Ben's reunion with Suzy as the conduit, leading to a lovely finale.
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Ellis' screenplay has an almost poetic quality, using just enough British slang that we recognize the country of origin, but we know exactly what everything means. The camera work is often breathtaking combining an unnerving use of freeze frame that brings an ethereal quality look to the nude female form that is often breathtaking. Sean Biggerstaff, who appeared in the first three Harry Potter movies as Oliver Wood, is warm and sensitive as Ben, but the real star of this film is Sean Ellis, who definitely is a director to watch. 3.5

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Pig
Oscar winner Nicolas Cage seems to be relaxing into a new phase of his career, following his mute performance in Willy's Wonderland, with 2021's Pig, a moody and slightly pretentious character study wrapped around a crime drama, where a not-that-interesting story is almost forgiven thanks to some stylish direction and a terrific performance from the star.
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Cage plays Robin, a man who lives in the forests of Portland, Oregon, where he survives working as a truffle-hunter with his own pig. Unfortunately, Robin's hermit-like existence is disrupted when his pig is stolen and he must confront his past in order to find her.
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Director and co-screenwriter Michael Sarnoski attempts to provide this story with more attention than it deserves by pretentiously splitting up the story into three parts and giving them titles, like a Woody Allen film, but these titles become irrelevant pretty quickly. What is relevant and really well done is establishing the character of Robin without showing everything that happened to him that has brought him to be living in the woods of Portland with a pig. The character is beautifully provided foundation when Robin walks into a restaurant and asks for someone and is informed that the person died 10 years ago.
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The story becomes more interesting as it is revealed that Robin was once a gourmet chef and that everywhere his investigation leads him, people remember him and his reputation precedes him, kind of like John Wick. There's an absolutely brilliant scene about halfway through the movie where Robin enters a fancy restaurant and questions the head chef there, who once worked for Robin as a sous chef and was fired after a couple of months. Watching Robin turn this guy to jelly was probably the best scene in the movie.
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Sarnoski does display a genuine talent with the camera. Watch the deliberate and delicate movement of the camera during any moment where food is being prepared by human hands. Sarnoski really wants us to understand the artistry that goes into being a chef and by the time the credits roll, we do.
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Cage's Robin isn't completely silent like his character in Willy's Wonderland, but the entertainment values of the performance comes from Cage completely losing himself inside this character and his embracing of Robin's physicality. Solid production values are also an asset, in a film that does tell a compelling story, but is not the masterpiece the director seems to think it is. 3.5

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Mr. Saturday Night
Billy Crystal had his first vanity project as the star, producer, director, and co-screenwriter of 1992's Mr. Saturday Night, a big budget salute to the golden age of television that died at the box office, due to the subject matter's lack of appeal to the all important 18-34 demographic and a story that just tries to cover too much territory.
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Crystal stars as Buddy Young Jr., a veteran stand up comedian who is trying to stay relevant in the 1990's, despite a career that dates back to vaudeville. The film vacillates between Buddy at the height of his career, where he abused everyone in his life, especially his brother, and the present, where he is in complete denial about the fact that his career is circling the drain.
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Crystal, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel, who had just collaborated on City Slickers are meticulous in bringing back the infancy of television as well as the history of comedy in general, creating a stunningly accurate look at old time show biz that clearly involved a lot of research in its presentation of the origins of comedy. Unfortunately, a lot of what goes on this film meant nothing to 1992 movie audiences. This story would have worked if it had concentrated more on present day Buddy trying to revive his career. This part of the story worked a lot better than the sweetly nostalgic salute to Sid Ceasar's Show of Shows.
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Crystal work very hard at making Buddy Young likable and never shies away from the negative aspects of the character. We've seen this kind of character before, including Crystal's most recent film Here Today...a show business legend with one foot in the past wanting a return to the spotlight on their own terms. Unlike his Here Today character, Buddy Young not only refuses to believe that he's finished, but turns his nose up at every opportunity a pretty young agent (Oscar winner Helen Hunt) tries to drum up for him. Not to mention the fact that Crystal was just a little too young to be convincing in this role that spans at least 50 years. It would be interesting to see Crystal do this movie today.
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The one consistently entertaining aspect of the film is the relationship between Buddy and his brother, Stan...flawed, sweet, sad, and funny. Despite the myriad problems with the over elaborate story, Buddy and Stan make you want to stay with this and see how it ends.
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Crystal works extremely hard in the title role, but his thunder is stolen by David Paymer as Stan, a lovely and engaging performance that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Julie Garner was also a little too young to be convincing as Buddy's wife, but Jerry Orbach, Ron Silver, and Mary Mara score in supporting roles. Cameos by Jerry Lewis, Slappy White, and Carl Ballantine add authenticity to the canvas, but the story is just a little too grandiose and a little too outdated to provide the kind of entertainment that 1992 movie audiences were looking for. 3

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Nobody
From the creator of the John Wick franchise comes Nobody, a blistering and bloody actioner that defies logic at every turn, but is executed with such cinematic pinache, this reviewer couldn't help but be riveted to the screen.
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The 2021 film stars Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) as Hutch Mansell, an everyday schlub, seemingly content in his mundane existence with his wife and kids. One night, a pair of crooks break into the house and Hutch chooses to protect his family in a manner that could be interpreted as cowardice, leading to ridicule from his co-workers and his son. This incident is the beginning of a snap inside Hutch which leads him to a ride on a city bus where he witnesses a group of thugs harassing a woman. Hutch beats the crap out of these guys, putting most of them in the hospital. It is then revealed that one of the guys Hutch crippled is the brother of a dangerous Russian mobster named Yulian Kuznetsov.
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Derek Kolstad, who created John Wick, has crafted another intriguing hero who, like John Wick, appears indestructible but really shouldn't be. The story actually begins with a beautifully edited exposition providing a look at Hutch's life, to show how dull it is and why he really should be hating it. As we're watching this, we're wondering why so much detail is being put into this, but it becomes clear pretty quickly.
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We learn that Hutch is a former FBI agent, but not just any agent...his position is what he refers to as an "auditor" and his explanation of what he does is beautifully written and does partially explain his ability to handle a whole lot of bad guys with machine guns at the same time. We don't really buy that this entire Russian organization is unable to take Hutch out, or that Hutch has been able to keep his former life from his family, but about halfway through the film, we don't care.
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The film features spectacular camera work, including a terrific tracking shot, that reminded me of Scorsese's classic tracking shot in Goodfellas. The film editing is Oscar-worthy and the song score was well chosen with one exception..am I the only one tired of watching gun battles (or anything else for that matter) with Satcmo's "Its a Wonderful World" playing on the audio? If that song could be eliminated from film scores permanently, I could live with that. Odenkirk is beautifully understated in the starring role and is well matched by Aleksey Serebryakov as the Russian madman. Kudos as well to a terrific supporting turn by Christopher Lloyd as Hutch's dad. Cinema for the action purist at its finest. 4.5

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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Solid production values, a rich screenplay, and breezy performances by the stars are the primary selling points of a minor classic from 1974 called Thunderbolt and Lightfoot that seamlessly combines two different movie genres, though it is a little longer than necessary.
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This is the story of Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood), a bank robber on the run for seven years after a botched robbery where the booty was never recovered, who meets a young hustler by the name of Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges), who also seems to be escaping a shady past. The guys run into two former members of Thunderbolt's crew who decide to let go of the past and work together on an even bigger and more elaborate heist.
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Though produced by Eastwood's production company Malpaso, the creative force behind this film is Michael Cimino, who directed and wrote the screenplay. Five years later, Cimino would win two Oscars for producing and directing 1978's Best Picture, The Deer Hunter, but he effectively cut his teeth here, mounting a richly entertaining story which actually tells two different stories. Yes, we have an elaborate heist caper mounted in meticulous detail, but we also have a lovely bromance/buddy movie centered around the title characters which is really the heart of this film.
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LOVED the way the characters meet...Thunderbolt is being chased by his shotgun toting former partner Red (the late George Kennedy) and is rescued by Lightfoot in a car he has just stolen. It's so much fun watching the hero worship in Lightfoot's eyes as he learns some of Thunderbolt's backstory, though we get no backstory about Lightfoot, which turns out to be OK. The relationship that develops between these guys has genuine affection, even a sliver of sexual tension, though I don't think the guys realize it. It's this relationship that keeps the viewer invested in everything that's going on.
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We do get to see the new heist caper planned and executed and it's fun seeing if the execution comes off exactly as the plan, but it is over detailed and slows the story down around the halfway point, but regains its momentum during the final act, which includes a hairy chase sequence through a drive-in theater and a handful of surprise storyline moves we don't see coming at all.
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Eastwood provides his usual understated cool as Thunderbolt, but the real star of this film is Jeff Bridges as Lightfoot, a dazzling and charismatic performance that earned the actor his second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor (he lost the award to Robert De Niro for The Godfather Part II). Kennedy provides equal laughs and hisses as the greedy and dopey Red and frequent Eastwood co-star, the late Geoffrey Lewis, is a charmer as the wimpy Goody. Other familiar faces pop up along the way including Jack Dodson, Dub Taylor, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, and Vic Tayback, but this film is all about Eastwood, Bridges, and the filmmaking skills of Michael Cimino. Incidentally, the only film I know of that features Jeff Bridges in drag. 4

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Holler
Despite some interesting characters at the core of the story, the 2020 film Holler fails to engage the reviewer thanks to lethargic direction and less-than-stellar production values.
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This is the story of an intelligent and streetwise girl named Ruth who spends her spare time with her older brother, Blaze, collecting cans and bottles for recycling to help pay for the college she was recently accepted into but can't afford. Ruth decides to take a similar route to more money by joining a scrap metal crew, which can earn her a lot more money, but is a lot more dangerous.
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Just like the recent Cashback, this is yet another short film that impressed someone enough to give director/writer Nicole Riegel the budget to make a feature length film out of it, but this time the mystery investor should have held onto their money. The world of stealing scrap metal just didn't make for a riveting movie, despite a couple of interesting characters at the center of it.
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The relationship between Ruth and her brother, Blaze was the most interesting aspect of the story. It becomes clear pretty quickly that Ruth has the brains to make something of herself, even if she is in denial about it. But Blaze is determined to see his sister go to college no matter the cost. Their relationship is given another interesting layer as we meet their mother, Rhonda, who is a drug addict in rehab, who doesn't seem to care anything about her children.
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The rest of the movie is centered around the not-very-interesting world of stealing and selling scrap metal and this is where the less than stellar production values come in. Most of the scenes involved around this unique criminal enterprise were so poorly lit that it was often impossible to tell what was going on. There is one scene in the film where a character dies and it wasn't until the end of the scene where someone says that the character died, did I realize someone had died. The lighting and camerawork is so shoddy that I literally didn't see the character die. Jessica Barden, Gus Halper, and Pamela Adlon are terrific as Ruth, Blaze, and Rhonda, respectively, but I'm not sure if the rest of the film is worth wading through to appreciate their work. 2

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A Boy Named Charlie Brown
My recent viewing of the Charles M Schultz documentary Who are You, Charlie Brown? reminded me that I had never watched 1969's A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the first feature length animated film featuring the legendary Peanuts characters, who come to the big screen four years after the television special A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on CBS.
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In this delightfully funny film, after being introduced to these classic characters, led by the ultimate schlub, Charlie Brown, our hero is encouraged by his best friend, the blanket-toting Linus, to enter the spelling bee that's taking place in his class. To everyone's surprise, Charlie Brown becomes the best speller in his class and in the school. The kids who have been ridiculing him his whole life suddenly have his back when he has to travel to New York for the National Spelling Bee.
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It probably took some persuading to get Schultz to bring his characters to the big screen in a full-length film, since our only exposure to them up to this point had been half-hour television specials. Someone had the wisdom to allow Schultz to write the screenplay that would introduce his "babies" to the screen. The first third of the film is devoted to exposition, introducing the characters to the audience for the uninitiated, with a look at Charlie Brown's incompetent baseball team, the constant ridicule he takes from Lucy in the form of psychiatric sessions, his smart-ass dog, Snoopy, who cares about nothing but supper and defeating the red baron, and Charlie Brown's constant battles to get a kite in the air. The spelling bee story gets a terrific layer added to it when Linus decides to lend his blanket to Charlie Brown for luck when he leaves for New York, which turns out to be a huge mistake for Linus.
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There's story here that gets sacrificed to include some overlong fantasy sequences that just slow the film down, especially Schroeder's Beethoven tribute and Snoopy's fantasy on ice at Rockefeller Center. When it sticks to the story, this movie provides more than its share of laughs, primarily with the treatment Charlie Brown gets from his hypocritical friends and the effects on Linus from giving his blanket to Charlie Brown.
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The film does feature a terrific song score, which actually earned the film an Oscar nomination. Loved Rod McKuen's "A Boy Named Charlie", the mean girls teasing of Charlie Brown called "Failure Face", but my favorite was "I Before E", a delicious patter song with Charlie Brown, Linus, and Snoopy studying spelling rules. For an animated film over 60 years old, this 60-plus reviewer found a lot of laughs here. These character are timeless. 3.5

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Love and Monsters
2020's Love and Monsters is an often spellbinding blend of action, romance, suspense, humor, and genuine chills that has a lot going for it, including solid direction, first rate production values, and a tongue in cheek screenplay that goes a little over the top in the final act in a way we don't see coming.
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As the film opens, we learn that, seven years ago, a "Monsterapocalypse" destroyed most of the world, sending survivors to live in underground bunkers. Joel Dawson is a sensitive, wanna-be artist who lost his parents in the attack and became separated from his girlfriend, Aimee, who survived but is living in a different bunker than Joel is. Despite warnings from his fellow bunker inhabitants, Joel decides to make the 85-mile journey to Aimee's bunker, accompanied by an amazing dog named Boy.
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This film is anchored by a strong screenplay Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson that never takes itself too seriously, evidenced in the terrific opening credits that actually provide exposition through a very funny narration of the story by Joel. And I have to admit that this one of the few films I've seen with a narration that is funny, never intrusive, and doesn't slow the film down. Joel only provides information on the audio when it's necessary, always knowing his primary place in the story as reluctant hero.
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This was the other thing I liked about this story. I liked that Joel was no superhero, was deliciously flawed, and was actually allowed to show fear about his situation. I never really thought about it until seeing this film, but this is the first action story like this where I saw a character firing a weapon and his hands were actually shaking. So fun to see fear displayed in situations that warranted fear. Also LOVED the relationship between Joel and this dog. This dog was absolutely amazing and we almost believe that he understands everything Joel is saying to him and director Michael Matthews has to get a lot of credit for making a relationship between a man and a dog completely believable and the heart of this often heart stopping action adventure.
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Matthews must also be credited with the concept of some of the most terrifying creatures I've seen in a monster movie. The final third of the film goes a little over the top, overshadowing the magic of the first two thirds, but our love of Joel and Boy keeps us invested. Matthews also gets a charismatic movie star performance out of Dylan O'Brien that makes us love Joel. A first rate action adventure epic with humor at the heart of it. 4

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The Helen Morgan Story
A genuine movie star performance by Paul Newman, in only his fifth film, is the best thing about 1957's The Helen Morgan Story, an alleged biopic about the famous 1920's torch singer that comes off more as a sudsy melodrama than a biography of one of Broadway's earliest legends.
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The film opens during the roaring 20's where we meet the struggling singer Helen (Ann Blyth) having an on again off again lover affair with a bootlegger and con man named Larry Maddux (Newman) which is further complicated by a married attorney named Russell Wade (Richard Carlson) who uses his wealth and position to buy Helen and her undying devotion. We then watch as this tragic love triangle leads Helen to alcoholism and the eventual destruction of the career Larry and Russell worked to build for her.
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First of all, if you're looking for facts about the career of Helen Morgan, who created the role of Julie LaVerne in the original 1927 production of Show Boat, this is not the place to look for two reasons: When I googled the name Larry Maddux, the only thing that came up were stills of Paul Newman from this movie. Second, according to the IMDB, Helen Morgan was married three times and the character is never observed marrying anyone in this movie. The other problem here was a common affliction of show biz biographies made in the 1950s: The rise to stardom is too fast to be believable as is the alcoholic descent to the bottom. As a matter of fact, there is a scene near the end of the movie, where a drunk Helen is in a bar and hears her song come on the radio, that was duplicated, practically word for word, for Patty Duke's character in 1967's Valley of the Dolls.
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The other big problem here is the casting of Blyth in the starring role. Blyth, who put herself on the map about a decade prior with her Oscar-nominated performance in Mildred Pierce just wasn't up for the demands of this meaty role, though she does a competent job lip-synching to Gogi Grant's voice. Fortunately, Paul Newman is so good as Larry Maddux that you almost don't notice how one-note Blyth's performance is. I learned that Doris Day was offered the role and turned it down. This film could have been something with Day in the role.
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The film is handsomely mounted, featuring Oscar-worthy sets and costumes, though there were continuity issues that should have been addressed. Primarily, the fact that every time Helen is observed singing in this film, she is seated onstage atop a piano with nothing else onstage, though the soundtrack clearly features a full orchestra. Despite the problems with this film, Paul Newman made it worth sitting through and was already beginning to foreshadow his future as a film icon. 3h

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Karen
The BET original film Karen is an overheated drama about racism that just doesn't work due to a juvenile story delivered with a sledgehammer and overripe performances.
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The 2021 film is about a widowed mother of two named Karen Drexler who lives in an upper class neighborhood in Atlanta who makes it her singular mission to drive a young black couple named Malik and Imani out of the house next door to hers, but the young couple refuse to take the harassment sitting down.
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An inexperienced filmmaker named Coke Daniels is the director and screenwriter of this mess and I'm guessing he was on coke when he wrote it, Daniels has given us a one-sided story that never really decides what side it wants us to be on as the alleged black hat of the story gets away with far too much for this story to be taken seriously. This might have worked if it were crafted in a more farcical manner but Daniels' story is done with way too a straight face to invest in.
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We know we're in for something pretty silly from the opening scene where we see the title character throw a bucket of water on a "Black Lives Matter" message etched in chalk on the sidewalk and then mopping the sidewalk clean. At one point, this woman actually gets herself invited to the couple's housewarming party and actually ends up telling their guests that they need to go back to Africa? Seriously? What is this, 1965? The objects of Karen's rage aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the row either. The husband Malik, actually allows Karen to catch him sitting in his car smoking weed. The whole point of the story went out the window for me when I realized that the black couple in the story were as dumb as Karen. The pretentious finale, in the form of a press conference, was unintentionally funny. They even dye Karen's hair jet black to help us remember that she's the villain.
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Daniels' direction is over-the-top and unoriginal. Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow) never really convinces as a 21st distaff Archie Bunker and neither do Carey Hardrict and Jasmine Burke as Malik and Imani. Daniels' intentions seem to be sincere, but this story is too silly to be believed. 1.5

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Chilly Scenes of Winter
Joan Micklin Silver, the creative force behind films like Loverboy and Hester Street is also the director and co-screenwriter of 1979's Chilly Scenes of Winter, an offbeat comedy drama that provides entertainment value thanks to an edgy screenplay and a terrific ensemble cast.
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The late John Heard plays Charles, a government employee who is lamenting about the loss of someone named Laura, as if she had died. It is soon revealed that Laura (Mary Beth Hurt) is a former co-worker of Charles, with whom he had an affair about a year ago for two months, before she returned to her husband and daughter. Having resisted the temptation for a year, Charles impulsively calls Laura and before we know it, the affair has begun allover again, or so it seems, as Laura's guilt about her marriage begins to develop as much as Charles' obsession with Laura.
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The story begins cleverly because Charles is acting as if Laura died. But once we learn the real story of Charles and Laura, the story gives us a glimpse at the two months Charles and Laura were together before returning to this reunion, which Laura is fighting half-heartedly and Charles begins focusing his entire life around. Charles' obsession with Laura reminded me a lot of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, but without the danger or mental health issues that Alex had. We know that Charles is not going to hurt Laura, but we also know that there's no way he's going to let her get away this time, evidenced in his actually confrontation with Laura's husband.
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Despite the Fatal Attraction feel to the development of the central character, the film actually has more of a Woody Allen sensibility to it, rich with humor and squirm worthy moments and some colorful supporting characters, including Charles' mentally ill mother, his lazy roommate, and the blind man who runs the newsstand outside his office.
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This film sustains interest because we really don't know how it's going to end until it ends. John Heard gives the performance of his career in the starring role and creates solid chemistry with Hurt, who is utterly charming as Laura. The legendary Gloria Grahame also offers her accustomed flashy turn as Charles' mother, but it's the challenging story and strong performances from the leads that make this worth watching. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

Chilly Scenes of Winter
This film sustains interest because we really don't know it's going to end until it ends. John Heard gives the performance of his career in the starring role and creates solid chemistry with Hurt, who is utterly charming as Laura. The legendary Gloria Grahame also offers her accustomed flashy turn as Charles' mother, but it's the challenging story and strong performances from the leads that make this worth watching. rating_3_5Glad you watched this it's a underseen movie. I really liked it myself. Glad to see Gloria getting a mention too🙂

[Gideon58]

I was just about to IM you to let you know that I watched it, I know it's oneofyour favorites.

[Citizen Rules]

I was just about to IM you to let you know that I watched it, I know it's oneofyour favorites.Well yeah, you know...anything with Gloria is good:D

[Gideon58]

Jungle Cruise
Take a large dose of The African Queen, mix in a little Raiders of the Lost Ark, and add a dash of Aliens, and you've got 2021's Jungle Cruise, Disney's big budget action adventure loosely based on a Disney World theme park ride.
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Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is a professor who steals a valuable Indian arrowhead that is also being pursued by an insane Russian prince (Jesse Plemmons). We learn that Lily and her brother, MacGregor (Jake Whitehall) need this arrowhead to get their hands on an even more valuable prize called the Tears of the Moon. Lily hires rugged riverboat captain named Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to get her down the river to her destination.
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This film features an overly complex screenplay from a surprising source. Two of the screenwriters, Glen Ficarra and John Riqua, are actually the creative forces behind the Emmy-winning NBC drama This is Us. They do have a talent for creating likable characters, which they have accomplished in spades...the sexual tension between Frank and Lily burns a hole through the screen and contrasts nicely with a sexist bent that simmers underneath the surface of the story. The characters remind us throughout that Lily is in over her head with her mission and everyone she meets are shocked that she's wearing pants. As a matter of fact, Frank calls Lily "Pants" throughout the movie.
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Apparently, the Disney attraction that was the basis for this film that I have never been on, features a riverboat captain whose patter with the audience includes a lot of really terrible puns and provides an amusing introduction to the Frank character (though the fact that he's being played by Dwayne Johnson makes that kind of a non-issue anyway) and the film could have worked on the Frank/Lily tension alone, but around the middle of the second act, the story takes a real supernatural turn we don't see coming, though it is hinted at during the exposition, which initially didn't seem important. It's around this portion of the film, where the story becomes a little confusing, but it does wrap for an effective finale, which took a little longer than necessary.
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Director Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) deserves props for his control of the scope and size of this story. Disney spared no expense in bringing this magic to the screen, employing Oscar-worthy cinematography, set design, sound, visual effects and especially James Newton Howard's gorgeous music. As always, Dwayne Johnson is the very definition of charisma as Frank and is well-matched by Emily Blunt's rich performance as Lily, a perfect combination of starched intelligence and smoldering sexuality. Plemmons totally chews the scenery in his strongest performance as the villain of the piece and Whitehall perfectly channels Hugh Grant in his work as MacGregor. It's not quite a home run, but a lot of work went into this one and it's well worth a look. 3.5

[gbgoodies]

Jungle Cruise
Take a large dose of The African Queen, mix in a little Raiders of the Lost Ark, and add a dash of Aliens, and you've got 2021's Jungle Cruise, Disney's big budget action adventure loosely based on a Disney World theme park ride.

This film, the first I believe based on an amusement park ride, features an overly complex screenplay from a surprising source. Two of the screenwriters, Glen Ficarra and John Riqua, are actually the creative forces behind the Emmy-winning NBC drama This is Us. They do have a talent for creating likable characters, which they have accomplished in spades...the sexual tension between Frank and Lily burns a hole through the screen and contrasts nicely with a sexist bent that simmers underneath the surface of the story. The characters remind us throughout that Lily is in over her head with her mission and everyone she meets are shocked that she's wearing pants. As a matter of fact, Frank calls Lily "Pants" throughout the movie.
3.5


I think Pirates of the Caribbean was also based on a ride at the Disney parks.

[SpelingError]

Also, The Haunted Mansion was based on an amusement park ride at Disney World.

[Gideon58]

OK, I guess I need to revise that sentence in my review.

[Gideon58]

The Wild One
A mesmerizing, sex-on-legs performance by the legendary Marlon Brando is the primary attraction of a minor classic from 1953 called The Wild One, whose seemingly simplistic story has some surprisingly still relevant themes brewing beneath the surface.
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Brando plays Johnny, the charismatic leader of a motorcycle gang who terrorize a one-horse town and are followed there by a rival gang led by Chino (Lee Marvin). A fist fight between Johnny and Chino lands Chino behind bars while Johnny can't takes his eyes off the police chief's pretty daughter, Kathie
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John Paxton's economic screenplay is rich with enough cliched and outdated dialogue to choke a horse, though we understand its purpose in this story of rebellion that was supposed to speak to a new generation of filmgoers. That cherished 18-34 demographic was still being sought by filmmakers, but the delivering of the message is almost unintentionally funny. It suddenly becomes not-so-funny when everything that happens falls on Johnny and the town turns into an unofficial KKK, hunting the guy down and planning to deliver their own brand of justice.
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Love the opening scenes establishing Johnny's position as leader of this motorcycle gang, but the story begins to loose us as the two clubs arrive in this tiny little town wreaking their own special havoc. It's a little odd as we watch townspeople literally hiding in their homes at the beginning of the film and chasing Johnny with clubs and bats during the climax. Especially distressing was the police chief (well played by Robert Keith) who had no idea what to do or was too scared to do it. He does get back up in the form of an angry sheriff, but he doesn't show up until the final ten minutes!
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Brando does his best to make his pursuit of Kathie work and the scene when they're alone in the woods is fraught with sexual tension, despite the wooden performance by Mary Murphy in the role. Kathie's transition from fearing Johnny to fighting her attraction to him isn't really believable, but director Laslo Benedek has to take partial blame for that. A more experienced actress wouldn't have hurt...kept picturing Natalie Wood in the role.
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Nevertheless, Brando is sexy and explosive and makes this film worth watching. Lee Marvin was also impressive as Chino and Jay C Flippen made his glorified cameo as the sheriff work. The film is shot in gorgeous black and white and I loved Leith Stevens' slightly overwrought music. Appointment viewing for Brando fans. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

I have yet to see The Wild One. One of these days I'll catch it.

[Gideon58]

Vacation Friends
2021's Vacation Friends is a silly and improbable big budget comedy that gets sillier and more improbable as it progresses, and suffers from some questionable casting, but remains watchable thanks to a terrific performance from one of the leading men and some clever plot twists.
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Marcus and Emily (Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji) are a recently engaged couple who spend a week in Mexico vacationing with Ron and Kyla (Jon Cena, Meredith Hagner), an outrageous pair of hard core partiers who try to teach Marcus and Emily how to live on the edge, starting by rimming their margaritas with cocaine. Marcus and Emily say a hasty goodbye to Ron and Kyla as they leave Mexico, hoping to forget them and everything that happened there. Of course, five months later, Ron and Kyla show up at Marcus and Emily's weekend wedding celebration in Atlanta, expecting to be the best man and maid of honor.
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Director and co-screenwriter Clay Tarver, the creative force behind the TV series Silicone Valley, has mounted an over the top comedy that walks the tightrope of good taste throughout most of the running time, connecting two couples who normally would never have become friends. What he does here that works is making Marcus and Emily black and Ron and Kyla white. If their races had been switched, this film would have been completely offensive. It's the world we live in.
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The scenes in Mexico are actually the funniest...they establish the bond that the couples create, or at least the bond Ron and Kyla think they are creating, allowing us to understand why they would track Marcus and Emily down. Once the action shifts to Atlanta, it just gets sillier and sillier including an Auntie Mame fox hunt, and a golf match where the stakes are $100 a hole.
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The one thing that completely works in this movie is the energetic and charismatic performance by Jon Cena as Ron. With the right role, this guy could become another Dwayne Johnson, but he just hasn't found the right role yet. Lil Rel Howery works very hard as Marcus, but this role should have been played by Kevin Hart. Robert Wisdom is terrific as Emily's dad and Anthony Bachelor is very funny as her brother. First rate production values help, but it never really comes together and the story definitely could have used some tightening. 2.5

[Gideon58]

The Morning After (1986)
Despite one of my favorite directors behind the camera, 1986's The Morning After is a convoluted and illogical murder mystery that, despite an impressive cast, fails to engage due to a story that makes one silly move after another, bombarding the reviewer with red herrings, finally leading to a finale that was a bit of a cop out.
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Oscar winner Jane Fonda stars as Viveca Van Loren, an alcoholic former actress who wakes up on Thanksgiving morning 1986 next to a body with a knife in his chest. of course, Viveca doesn't remember what happened. Viveca is advised to call the police and then an attorney, advice she ignores sending her on a way out of this situation, finding an unexpected ally in a hunky ex-cop named Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges).
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Sidney Lumet is one of my favorite directors, but he can't be blamed for what went wrong here....his stylish directorial touch is all over this, but he's got a really dumb story here, centered on a heroine who makes one dumb move after another. First Viveca decides the only way out is to leave town, but for some unfathomable reason, she decides to go back to the scene of the crime and clean up and it's not long before she confesses everything to Turner. Then the script has us thinking Turner might be behind this. And needless to say, the cops are four steps behind the whole time. I did love the fact that the murder victim is being interviewed on television as the film opens
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James Cresson's screenplay does a good job of crafting backstory for Viveca, but the meet cute between Viveca and Turner takes too long and their somewhat flippant attitude about what they've gotten themselves into didn't work this reviewer either. Why an ex-cop would think becoming a possible accomplice in a murder is a good idea. Almost ten minutes of screen time is devoted to Viveca and Turner bonding over Nancy Drew books...seriously?
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On the plus side, Lumet works wonders with this cast, despite the precious little they have to work with. Fonda's overripe performance incredibly earned her an Oscar nomination. It's not an uninteresting performance, but Oscar-worthy? Jeff Bridges offers his accustomed charismatic star turn and loved Raul Julia as Viveca's husband. Don't blink and you'll catch cameos from Anne Bancroft, Kathy Bates, Frances Bergen, and Rick Rossovich. Lumet's directorial gloss makes this piece seem a little better than it is, but not much. 2.5

[Gideon58]

Cinderella (2021)
The 2021 version of Cinderella is a lavishly produced, contemporary re-imagining of a classic fairy tale that deserves an "A" for effort, but ultimately misses because it re-imagines a story that doesn't really require re-imagining.
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The story of Cinderella has had at least half a dozen screen versions not to mention dozens of imitations and rip-offs, so in 2021, an attempt to bring something new and inventive and entertaining to this story has to be spectacular, but director and screenwriter Kay Cannon, who directed Blockers and produced Pitch Perfect really misses the boat here.
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The idea of mounting the story as a musical is nothing new, but, in the tradition of films like Moulin Rouge, Cannon has decided to utilize classic pop songs for the majority of the score instead of an original score and only a handful of them really work. Tony winner Idina Menzel's take on "Material Girl" as the Evil Stepmother was on the money, Salt and Peppa's "What a Man" worked at the ball and Emmy winner Billy Porter dazzled as the Fabulous Godmother with his rendition of "Shining Star", but the rest of the songs just seemed like they were in the wrong movie (including the ones that leading lady (Camila Cabello) wrote.
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The softening of the Evil Stepmother character really bothered me and way too much time was spent with minor characters like the mice turned into footmen and the troubled marriage of the King and Queen, superbly played by Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver. The addition of a sister for the Prince didn't really work either.
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Most troubling though was the attempt to make Ella a more contemporary heroine, by having her life's desire to be a fashion designer and when she finally does meet the Prince, she is flattered by his proposal and the offer to sit on her throne all day and be queen, she wants to have a career as a fashion designer first...seriously? I understand it's the "Me too" generation and all and women can be whatever they want to be, but this is Cinderella. We don't want to see her in board meetings or schmoozing at fashion week in Milan. We want her on her throne, as the new Queen living happily ever after.
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Cannon is to be applauded for the attention she put into production values, with special nods to editing, art direction, and some stunning costumes. Camila Cabello is a wonderful singer and songwriter, but seemed a little over her head in the title role, though Nicholas Galitzine showed solid leading man potential as Prince Robert. Loved the choreography too, but this re-thinking of a classic story was a definite example of "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It."
2.5

[Gideon58]

The Hot Rock
From the director of Bullitt and the screenwriter of All The President's Men comes a slick little heist drama from 1972 called The Hot Rock that doesn't go anywhere we expect it to, demanding viewer attention through its execution and providing surprises for the majority of its running time.
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An African doctor hires career criminals Dortmunder (Robert Redford) and Kelp (the late George Segal) to steal a rare diamond from a museum. Dortmunder and Kelp hire Greenburg (Paul Sand), an explosives expert and Murch (the late Ron Leibman), a transportation expert to assist them in the heist. Unfortunately, things don't go off as planned as one member of the team gets pinched and the diamond becomes a bouncing ball that our gang has to steal more than once.
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Two time Oscar winning screenwriter William Goldman provides us with what appears to be a simple heist story on the surface, but we just don't see the bouncing booty that our heroes keep losing track of. The running joke of the African doctor who keeps a close eye on the expenses involved, which he doesn't want to pay remains fresh throughout. Some of the gang's requests are as perplexing to the viewer as they are to the doctor until we see how they are utilized and they all make sense, even though the guys still can't hold onto the diamond.
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Initially, I was expecting something along the lines of the Ocean's Eleven franchise where the majority of the running time is devoted to assembling the team and the planning of the crime. Imagine my surprise when the actual heist happened less than thirty minutes into the running time. We then watch circumstances, interlopers, betrayal, and greed provide more than the expected interference to the prize. And this is where director Peter Yates' eye for stylish action sequences come in...the chase between our guys and the security guards at the museum is brilliantly staged and shot, as is an actual break-in to a maximum security prison, which should have been impossible. And even with all this, Yates and Goldman keep us waiting until the final five minutes of the film for some kind of resolution.
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Yates utilizes Manahattan effectively as the tale's canvas and has assembled a solid cast of pros to pull of this story, headed by Redford, who almost brings a Steve McQueen-cool to Dortmunder, well-matched by Segal's breezy Kelp and Leibman's in your face Murch. Mention should also be made of Moses Gunn channeling James Earl Jones as the African doctor and a fantastic supporting turn from the legendary Zero Mostel as Greenberg's fathe, who both make the most of their screentime. It could have wrapped a little quicker than it did, but this was one was a lot of fun. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Val
A one of a kind Hollywood icon who has been dealt more than his share of hard knocks over the years gets a bold, laid bare, and lovingly respectful tribute in 2021's Val, a documentary about the life and career of Val Kilmer that is funny, heartbreaking, brave, unapologetic, and joyous that had this reviewer riveted to the screen and fighting tears.
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Kilmer is currently in remission from throat cancer, but the disease has done irreparable damage to this throat and vocal chords. This is why we are immediately informed that the narration for the majority of the film is written by Kilmer, but actually done by his son, Jack, who sounds frighteningly like his dad. Kilmer is observed throughout the film speaking through the apparatus on his throat which is operated by him pushing a button, but it is very difficult to understand him. This does not stop Kilmer from appearing in this vulnerable state throughout the film and, honestly, often it's very difficult to watch.
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For this reviewer, the number one objective of a celebrity documentary is that learn things about the subject that I never knew and I got that in abundance here. The brief look at his childhood revealed that Kilmer lost a brother who drowned at the age of 15 and a troubled relationship with his father, that involved a lot of shady business deals that ended up amassing huge debts for the actor that he is still trying to take care of to this day.
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Kilmer's tenure at Julliard was also news to me and revealed his first serious passion for the craft for which he would become famous. It was during his time at Julliard where it's revealed the first role he ever had a true passion for but never got to play was Hamlet, lovingly documented here. The only other role where he seemed to feel a similar connection was Jim Morrison in The Doors .
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Some fun behind the scenes stuff was revealed liked the nightmares that came from making Batman Forever and The Island of Dr Moreau. It's also revealed that whenever Val there was a role he really wanted, he would make an audition film playing one or more of the characters in the movie and send it to the director. There is a clip of Val playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas and a tape to Stanley Kubrick to play any role in Full Metal Jacket. We also get a shot of Val in his first New York play backstage with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon, who moon the camera.
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The two most powerful sequences for this reviewer revolved around the actor getting sick during an autograph session at Comic-Con and some home movies of his wife Joanne Whalley on the video while the audio was a nasty argument with the couple regarding custody of their children, Jack and Mercedes. This is not an easy watch and the best thing of all, the film reveals that Val is still working. He's actually in the process of bringing a one man show he wrote about Mark Twain to the screen. This revelation alone earned the rating half a point. Appointment viewing for Kilmer fans. 5

[Gideon58]

Still Crazy
Fans of This is Spinal Tap might have a head start with 1998's Still Crazy, a raunchy and bittersweet look at an aging rock band that will initially prompt images of the Rob Reiner classic, but this story is told with a much straighter face.
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Strange Fruit was a British rock and roll band who ruled in the 1970's but at some point completely self-destructed for a plethora of reasons, including the death of a couple of band members. Twenty years later, Tony, the band's keyboard player, takers it upon himself to reunite the band with Karen, their original manager, and embark on a European tour that defines Murphy's Law.
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Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian Le Fernais, who wrote a similar film seven years earlier called The Commitments, have crafted a story similar to their 1991 surprise smash that takes a similar look at a foreign rock band from the other side of the cinematic spectrum. This film showcases a group where all the members of the group are working regular jobs and have completely given up their rock and roll days and don't really seem to miss them. On the other hand, there isn't a lot of arm twisting involved in getting these guys to board the tour bus again.
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Director Brian Gibson (What's Love Got to Do With It) manages to give this somewhat voyeuristic look at a band past their prime, a serious dose of realism as several mini-dramas weave their way across the screen. These guys are past their prime,,,old, overweight, sick, the lead singer Ray even demands Karen find an AA meeting for him as they arrive for their first gig. It's not long before long buried resentments rise to the surface, particularly an ugly feud between Ray and guitarist Les. Oh and Beano, the drummer, is convinced that the government has someone trailing him for back taxes.
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The thunderous score includes "All Over the World", "Black Moon", "Live for Today", "Dangerous Things" and the Golden Globe nominee for Best Original Song, "The Flame Still Burns."
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The film features some gorgeous European scenery and Peter Boyle's film editing is first rate. Standout performances are provided by Jimmy Nail (who played Migaldi in the film version of Evita) as Les, Juliet Aubrey as Karen, Billy Connolly as the band's stage manager and film's narrator, Timothy Spall as Beano, and especially Bill Nighby as the semi-tragic Ray. An often lovely, often ugly look at a side of the music business that often stings...the backside. 4

[Gideon58]

Don't Breathe
Director and co-screenwriter Fede Alvarez, who helmed the 2013 remake of Evil Dead, knocked it out of the park with his next project. 2016's Don't Breathe is a claustrophobic and often paralyzing crime thriller that borrows elements from classic films but surrounds them with such a twisted story that takes so many twists and turns that we're left spent and expecting more.
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This story starts off so simple that it's just mind-bending the journey the viewer is taken on here. Rocky, Alex, and Money are a trio of petty thieves who work with electronic precision and have been tipped off about an old war veteran who lives by himself and supposedly has $300,000 stashed in his house somewhere. While casing the joint, the trio learn that the man is blind, putting their minds even more at ease about the job. However, this old blind man turns out to be anything but a helpless victim.
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Alvarez has constructed an intricate and extremely deft screenplay that establishes the black hats and white hats of the story and then continually whitewashes his original concept to the point that all of the hats involved being gray. We see at the beginning of the film how well these three work together and then we see this old blind man, and we can't help but feel sympathy for him, hoping that these three thieves get what they want without hurting this man who doesn't deserve it.
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I was reminded of the classic Wait Until Dark when the old man first realizes there are people in his house. We think he's going to be helpless against an enemy he can't see, but as we know, the other senses of the blind are heightened and that definitely comes into play here, not to mention that the old man has a secret or two of his own that come into play. There's also a very effective nod to Cujo that had my stomach in knots. Our sympathies immediately and confusingly go to these petty thieves, but no one in this story gets off easy.
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Alvarez employs some extraordinary camerawork in pulling this story together, including some great tracking shots. He gets first rate assistance from his cinematography, editing, and sound teams. Big kudos to the sound team, who make the silences deafening and the thieves struggle not to breathe when necessary glass-shattering. The severely underrated Stephen Lang, who has toiled in supporting roles for years in movies and on television, gets his first real opportunity center stage in a feature and turns in an absolutely bone-chilling performance as the old blind man. Jane Levy (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist) is solid as Rocky, as are Dylan Minnette as Alex and Daniel Zovatto as Money. Chilling and twisted entertainment that kept me on the edge of my chair just in time for the sequel that was released this year. 4

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Dear Evan Hansen
2021's Dear Evan Hansen is a long and lumbering film version of the Tony-winning Broadway musical that, despite a glorious musical score by the composers of the score for La La Land, falls flat due to some really squirm-worthy subject matter for a musical that doesn't fit the score and probably should have stayed on the stage where it belongs.
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Ben Platt is allowed to reprise his Tony-winning Broadway role in the title role, a painfully introverted high school senior who actual suffers from a condition called Social Anxiety Disorder, that has him in therapy. Evan is assigned by a therapist to write a letter to himself, which ends up in the hands another troubled student named Connor Murphy. The following day, Connor commits suicide and as Conner's family and others come to Evan for answers, Evan attempts to create answers that don't really exist and sending Evan on his own journey of self-discovery.
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The Broadway musical this film was based on opened in 2016 and at the time Covid-19 shut down Broadway, had run over 1300 performances. There clearly is entertainment value in this story, but the abstract style of the story is more suited for the stage than the screen. It doesn't help that the story is also centered around the suicide of a teenage boy, which this reviewer found troubling, as it's just not a favorite subject of this reviewer. Justin Paul and Steven Levenson's screenplay confuses from the beginning because the entire concept of the story is that Evan and Connor are supposed to be strangers, but the first fifteen minutes of the film shows Connor trying to reach out to Evan in different ways, though we really don't know why, prompting Evan to create a relationship between him and Connor that didn't exist.
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On the plus side, the story has a very 2021 element that seems to make it more accessible to audiences of today. This is the first film I've seen really that addresses the effects of the internet and social media on current society. It was squirm-worthy watching the virtual unknown Connor become a social media darling whose deep unhappiness actually brings millions of people together and initiates a fund raising project to get an apple orchard named after him. We also see the other end of the spectrum as the truth comes out about Connor and turns his family into social pariahs.
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What really kept this reviewer invested in these unpleasant goings-on was the absolutely gorgeous musical score by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek that tries to, but never quite connects to this downer of a story. Especially loved Evan's vocally demanding opening number "Waving through a Window", his duet with Connor's sister, "If I Could Tell Her", the touching "Requiem" performed by Connor's family, Evan's mom's apologetic "So Big/So Small" and especially a fantasy duet between Evan and Conner called "You Will Be Found."
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Director Thomas Chbosy (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) lets things get a little too maudlin, but his camerawork is strong. Platt has an engaging screen presence and a gorgeous voice and I look forward to his role in the film version of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. Six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams is lovely as Connor's mother and Kaitlyn Dever, who played Tim Allen's daughter, Eve, on Last Man Standing, shines as Connor's sister, Zoe. Oscar winner Julianne Moore also makes the most of her role as Evan's guilt-ridden mom. This was an ambitious undertaking, but was just too much of a downer that probably worked better onstage. 2.5

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Sorry Wrong Number (1948)
A flashy performance by Barbara Stanwyck in the starring role anchors an intense 1948 melodrama called Sorry Wrong Number, that was, honestly, nothing like I expected, but provided solid entertainment with more than a couple of surprises along the way.
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Stanwyck plays Leona Stevenson, a sickly woman who is trying to reach her husband Henry (Burt Lancaster) to find out when he's coming home. The operator misdials the number and Leona finds herself connected to a phone conversation between two people who are planning a murder and though it takes awhile, Leona comes to believe that these two men are planning to murder her.
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The screenplay is by Lucille Fletcher, adapted from her own radio play, which apparently allowed Fletcher to flesh out the story for the movie screen. From what I've heard about this movie, I expected Stanwyck's character to be the only one onscreen, unable to walk, and spending ninety minutes trying to get someone on the phone to believe that someone is breaking into her house and that she can't walk. For this film, a lot of this turns out not to be the case. Once Leona is unable to reach her husband, the film flashes back to the beginning of their relationship in order to give the viewer insight into the Stevenson marriage and why Leona might be in danger.
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This flashback is nicely detailed and unrolls methodically, showing us that the Stevenson marriage is not the bed of roses Leona would like us and everyone around her to believe. A couple of unexpected plot twists reveal themselves along the way that we don't see coming that make it clear that this marriage is seriously damaged and both the husband and wife have done their part in its implosion.
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There is the funniest screen introduction talking about the power of the telephone. but the story pretty quickly loses its humor. Barbara Stanwyck delivers a highly th okeatrical performance of such intensity that it earned the film it's only Oscar nomination (losing to Jane Wyman for Jonny Belinda). Burt Lancaster is slick and sexy as her husband, Henry and I also liked Ed Begley as her dad. There's also a very early film appearance from William Conrad (Cannon) as a bad guy. Yeah, it's a little dated, but Stanwyck and Lancaster keep this one on sizzle. 4

[SpelingError]

I've been meaning to check that one out for a while. I might bump it up the queue.

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Kate
2021 bring us yet in another badass female assassin in the tradition of Jolt and Gunpowder Milkshake. Kate is another relentlessly bloody action epic that provides plenty of what action fans are looking for as long as they don't think about it too much.
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Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as the title character, a female contract killer who we first meet in Osaka, Japan taking out a member of the Yakuza. Kate is guilt ridden because she killed the guy in front of his teenage daughter and swears after her next assignment, that she wants out. She travels to Tokyo for her next assignment, which goes terribly wrong in the form of Kate actually getting poisoned. Despite the fact that she's been told that she only has about 24 hours to live, she decides she is going to murder the guy that did this to her and it just happens that her main ally in helping her find this guy is the teenage girl in Osaka.
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This is only the second feature length assignment for director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who does do an effective job of giving this tale a spooky and very futuristic feel, completely reinventing the Japanese canvas that we've met in films like Lost in Translation. What we get here is the Japan that we were introduced to in the Michael Douglas film Black Rain...dark and dangerous thanks to the frighteningly endless reach of the Yakuza, who appear to be a lot more dangerous than anything we've seen in a Copolla or Scorsese epic.
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There's no denying that this Kate is a badass and knows what she's doing. We learn that she's been training for this since she was a child, but it's still pretty hard to just accept the way she takes out dozens of these guys at a time. The stunt and fight coordination teams are to be applauded for some spectacular battle scenes, but is it believable? Probably not, but we're so behind our heroine that we don't really care.
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One thing I did like about this story that reminded me a little bit of the John Carpenter classic Escape from New York is that Kate's mission had a clock on it. Just like the death warrant attached to Snake Plissken's wrist in that film, Kate is told she is going to die in less than 24 hours and the story actually remembers this commitment to the story made early on, even when it seems like they might forget.
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Winstead makes a durable and dangerous action hero and Woody Harrelson makes the most of his role as her sensei, Varrick. The film features first rate production values, including awesome Japanese scenery, art direction, music, and sound. Like most of the action genre brought to us this year, there's entertainment to be found here as long as you don't think about it too much. 3

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Bo Burnham: Inside
My first exposure to him was as Carey Mulligan's love interest in last year's Promising Young Woman, where he proved to be a more than competent actor. But he proves to be a more than competent director, writer, keyboard player, singer, film editor, cameraman, songwriter, guitarist, music director, and lighting technician in his third special entitled Bo Burnham: Inside, which, in terms of entertainment, redefined the adjective "original."
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A huge bouquet to Netflix for taking the risk of bringing something like this, that doesn't exactly fit the typical movie or television genre, to the small screen. While quarantined during the year 2020, Burnham locked himself in a room and filmed this comedy special...no, it's not a special...this is a one man show...no, it's not a one man show...this is live theater...on television.
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It's hard to write about this, yet it's very easy to avoid spoilers, because explaining what happens here is pretty much impossible. It requires an open mind and undivided attention. This piece is filmed exactly the way it came out of Burnham's brain. He starts material ( or as he refers to it "content") and doesn't finish it, he performs and then critiques himself, he has difficulty expressing certain thoughts to the point of breaking down and crying and has the viewer wondering whether the breakdown is sincere or acting.
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Even though Burnham is primarily known as an actor and comedian, it's his talent as a songwriter and musician that really makes this piece soar. Song titles include "Face Time with My Mom", "White Woman's Instagram", "Comedy", "30", "Bezos", :Welcome to the Internet" and what he does with a song called "Unpaid Intern" has to be seen to be believed.
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If you're looking for stand-up comedy, you won't find it here. During the 90-minute running time, I think I may have laughed out loud three times. Though laughs were very selected, I found this piece to be nothing short of mesmerizing and could not take my eyes off the screen. This guy is so smart and so good at what he does, I imagine he is probably difficult to work with on a mainstream movie set and probably drove Emerald Fennell insane on the set of Promising Young Woman, but this guy really shouldn't be directed by anyone else...a most singular and unique talent whose work on this piece earned him three Emmys. Not for all tastes, but for those who are game, dazzling entertainment. 4.5

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Three Daring Daughters
The recent passing of Jane Powell motivated me to try and dig up something of hers that I hadn't already seen. Sadly, 1948's Three Daring Daughters is a formulaic and overlong musical comedy that suffers from leaden direction, too many pointless musical interludes, and a badly miscast leading man.
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The legendary Jeanette McDonald stars as Louise Morgan, the divorced working mother of three daughters, who one day passes out at the office and misses the graduation ceremony of eldest daughter, Tess (Powell). Louise's doctor suggests that a long vacation away from work and her daughters is the answer for her and she is sent on a cruise to Mexico. Tess and sisters decide that the answer to their mother's well-being is to reunite her with her ex-husband and their father. The girls approach their father's boss (Edward Arnold) and ask him to locate their father and bring him home. Meanwhile on the cruise, Louise has a whirlwind romance with pianist/conductor Jose Iturbi, which leads to marriage, a marriage that Louise is afraid to tell her daughters about, leading to endless musical comedy complications.
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The basic premise of this movie is a pretty good one. This is one of the few times I recall that the leading lady in an MGM musical was a working mother and her work wasn't trying to be a movie star. As a matter of fact, the IMDB revealed that the Catholic Church's National Legion of Decency protested the film's portrayal of Louise as "morally objectionable" because the character was divorced. For me this was one of the most refreshing aspects of the character. She did not go on this cruise looking for romance and keeps Iturbi at arm's length for quite awhile before agreeing to marrying him, which surprised this reviewer. She messes up when she puts her daughters' happiness of her own, coupled with her daughters deciding that they know what's best for their mother.
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Unfortunately, the story doesn't work as it should due to the problematic casting of Iturbi as McDonald's leading man. MGM spent a good decade trying to make a star out of Iturbi, usually featuring him in brief guest starring appearances concentrating on his talent as a musician. His lack of talent is evidenced in his resume, where he only appears as himself in the movies he made. Someone had the bright idea to make Iturbi the romantic lead in this film, where it becomes crystal clear that the man can't act. His bland, one-note performance really weighs this film down.
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On the plus side, this film was my first introduction to Jeanette McDonald, who is absolutely enchanting as Louise. I've never seen any of her operatic musicals with Nelson Eddy, but I may have to re-think that. Her rendition of "Where There's Love" was the musical highlight of the film, with honorable mention to her duet with Powell. "The Dicky Bird Song"
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Powell is cute as a button and makes the most of her musical sequences, but she has to play second fiddle to McDonald and Iturbi but the endlessly talented Arnold steals every scene he's in as the gruff boss with the mob sensibility coerced into helping the girls. BTW, the little girl playing youngest sister, Alix, is played by Elinor Donahue, who would get her fifteen minutes playing Betty on Father Knows Best. MGM's attention to production values is solid, but Iturbi's performance and some endless musical numbers by his orchestra make this one hard to invest in. 2.5

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Worth (2020)
With the recent 20th anniversary of the events of 9/11 (it's mind blowing to me that two decades have passed), it's not surprising that Hollywood has taken another look at the worst day in American history from a slightly different viewpoint in 2020's Worth, a melodramatic look at a mission that was virtually impossible: Determining the worth of a human life.
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Shortly after that horrible day, a Washington DC attorney named Kenneth Feinberg puts his firm and his own reputation on the line by organizing The 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, which found Feinberg battling DC bureaucracy in getting the government to compensate families of the victims. His firm then must decide on what is a proper amount of compensation and then must get a certain percentage of claimants to blindly accept whatever is decided.
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Director Sara Colangelo and screenwriter Max Borenstein have taken on a mammoth assignment here, trying to provide entertainment value to a story that is still so freshly painful for so many people after all of these years. We are brought back to that day immediately through some archival footage from that day and beautifully directed scene of Feinberg on a train, just a couple of miles away from the carnage and witnessing it close enough to touch it.
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Unlike films like Flight 93, where there is no control over what is happening to these victims, we see victims' families not only fighting for compensation, but for respect of their loss. The tension created in that first scene where Feinberg meets with claimants face to face crackles with tension and convinces us that Feinberg is tackling something that absolutely can't be done. Loved the irony of the one person in the crowd willing to listen to him was Feinberg's greatest opposition of what he was doing.
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There are no easy answers here and due to the subject matter, the proceedings do get mired in melodrama and make the film a little longer than it needs to be, but the assorted looks at certain families are given enough care in their presentation that we want to see if they get what they deserve. We want to see if anyone will get what their deserve. Michael Keaton's understated performance as Feinberg and the performances of Amy Ryan, Tate Donovan, and especially Stanley Tucci serve the story as they should. It's a worthy movie subject that really couldn't be wrapped up in a two hour movie, but it's a sincere effort. 3.5

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Psycho Beach Party
A mixed bag to be sure, 2000's Psycho Beach Party is an often dead on blending of the 60's beach party genre with the teen slasher genre, based on a stage play that this reviewer suspects was seriously overhauled in order to get the film greenlighted and because of that, doesn't quite work the way the playwright intended.
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Florence aka Chicklet is a virginal teenage outcast who wants more than anything to be one of the cool kids on the beach. As she begins to be accepted by the so-called cool kids, it comes to light that Chicklet suffers from multiple personality disorder and one of these personalities might be a serial killer.
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The play upon which this film is based was written by a gay playwright named Charles Busch, who played Chicklet in the original production. By the time the film went into production, Busch felt he was too old for the role and wrote an additional role into the story for himself, Captain Monica Stark, the police officer investigating the murders. For some reason, it felt like if Chicklet was played by a guy in drag, that most of the female roles in the play were played by men as well and therein the real gimmick of this film lies. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the piece's appeal is lost with women playing the female characters.
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On the positive side, there are flashes of brilliance in Busch's screenplay. which perfectly brings the 1960's to the screen, complete with dialogue rich with outdated teen speak and not very subtle sexual innuendo. Most of the guys on the beach are portrayed in as homosexuals who aren't aware of it. The guys wrestling on the beach had a homoerotic undertone that was beyond obvious and provided sporadic laughs throughout, but with the female characters played straight, it wasn't as funny as it should have been.
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Director Robert Lee King infuses the proceedings with a keen knowledge of the period and dresses it up with some sharp production values. Loved the finale that took place on a movie marquee and the purposely fake looking surfing scenes.. Lauren Ambrose, best known for her role on the HBO series Six Feet Under is terrific as Chicklet, as is Nicholas Brendon as Starcat, Amy Adams as the local beach tramp Marvel Ann, and Beth Broderick as Chicklet's mother. It would be interesting to see this piece onstage as Busch intended. 3

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Dave Chappelle: The Closer
God bless Netflix, as, once again, Dave Chappelle knocks it out of the park with an edgy and dangerous evening of stand up comedy in Dave Chappelle: The Closer, where he crafts an evening of comedy through something stand-ups rarely do but takes it to an entirely different level.
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In my review of a George Carlin stand up special several years ago, I mentioned the fact that he referenced a joke from a previous special because he received mail asking for the joke to be explained. In this special filmed live from Detroit, not only does Chappelle reference a previous special (Sticks and Stones, but pretty much crafts this entire concert around it.
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In previous Chappelle concerts, he always shares at least one story dealing with an encounter with a homosexual male, whether it is an actual come on or a conversation. He has also made several pointed remarks about transgendered individuals that has that community up in arms. He manages not only to apologize without really apologizing, but break fresh ground with the community and garner some huge laughs while doing it. As always, Chappelle garners said laughs without actually working for them but through the natural humor that evolves from the stories that he tells with such aplomb, it's hard to tell which stories are real.
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He actually concludes the concert with a story about a transgendered individual who he asked to open for him during a particular concert and the many places this story went were unadulterated genius. As always, Chappelle gets a few celebrity digs in as well, taking some well-aimed potshots at rapper Da Baby, Kaitlyn Jenner, JK Rowling, and Anderson Cooper. Another roll-on-floor-evening from one of the few geniuses in the business. 4.5

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The Delicate Delinquent
Jerry Lewis was the producer and star of 1957's The Delicate Delinquent, a silly comic romp that provides sporadic laughs, which, BTW, was the first movie that Lewis made without Dean Martin.
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Mike Damon is a bleeding heart police officer who believes that, if provided with more sympathy, and understanding, juvenile delinquency can be eradicated, one teen punk at a time. Sidney Pythias is the klutzy handyman for an apartment building who gets mistakenly arrested during an attempted robbery. Mike befriends Sidney, who eventually asks Sidney to help him get into the police academy.
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This film was originally intended to be the next Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis movie, following Hollywood or Bust, but Martin refused to do the film because the role required him to wear a police uniform onscreen, which led to his being recast and the end of his very profitable working relationship with Lewis, leading to Darren McGavin being cast as Mike Damon. Paramount apparently had their issues about greenlighting the project without Martin, evidenced by the obviously limited budget and a B-list screenwriter and director helming the project.
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Lewis works very hard to make this film funny, employing a lot of the mugging and physical comedy that we would expect from him, though it provided few laughs for this reviewer. Incredibly, when Lewis pushes the clowning to the side and plays Sidney's character straight, it's actually quite an endearing performance...watch the scene where a pretty young tenant in his building why Sidney always ignores here. The scene is funny because it's completely based in realism, not in acting trickery, a Lewis specialty. And I'm not sure if it was assuage Paramount or to stick it to Dean Martin, but a completely unnecessary musical moment is provided for Lewis singing the class "By Myself", that was nothing special but brought the film to a dead halt, which was another part of the film's problem. There are some real laughs once Sidney enrolls in the police academy. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen until halfway through the film and the movie moves at a snail's pace up until then.
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The pressure he felt about his first solo outing is all over Lewis' face throughout the film and Lewis fans won't be disappointed. McGavin is quite charming in an early role, part of a long and distinguished career where he never became a real movie star, but worked steadily, probably best remembered for playing a vampire chaser named Carl Kolchak. Martha Hyer is wasted in another of her thankless ice queen roles and there's also an early film appearance from classic movie bad guy Richard Bakalyan as one of the previously mentioned teen punks. It's no classic, but it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. 3

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Survive the Game
Despite the presence of Bruce Willis in a pivotal role, 2021's Survive the Game is a convoluted and over the top crime thriller that features overripe direction and performances, not to mention a screenplay with several plot holes you can drive a truck through. This was basically 97 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
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As this hot mess of a movie opens, we witness a gun duel between a pair of cops and a pair of criminal lowlifes, who turn out to be part of an elaborate drug cartel, where they are pretty low on the food chain. Somehow this fight leads the two cops and the two drug dealers to a remote farmhouse, occupied by a young farmer who has just lost his wife and child in a car accident
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It was really hard sustaining interest in this film because we are given precious little information about these four people who begin the film and then bring a seemingly innocent bystander into their conflict. Ross Peacock's juvenile screenplay consists of enough cliched dialogue to fill a 1950's crime drama. Peacock's journey revealed that this was his first full-length feature screenplay and it's easy to see why as the film progresses. Ten minutes of screentime are devoted to how the farmer's wife and kid died and about thirty minutes later, another ten minutes of screentime are devoted to him explaining what happened to another character.
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It becomes apparent pretty quickly that if this cartel is in trouble, it's because most of their employees are blithering idiots. I can't remember the last movie I saw so rich with a bunch of bad guys doing stupid and unbelievable things. When we finally meet the big boss 16 minutes before the end of the film, he turns out to be about 20 years old and wearing too much eyeline...seriously?
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As for Willis, his role in the film becomes more and more thankless as the story progresses and we have to wonder why he would even get involved with this mess. I'm guessing he really needed the money. Production values are definitely on the cheap. There are several overhead shots of the farm that are clearly miniatures and most of the fight scenes are so poorly lit, you can't see what's going on. But this is what happens when you have true amateurs behind the camera. 1

[Gideon58]

Harriet Craig
One of Joan Crawford's most powerful performances is the eye of a melodramatic hurricane from 1950 called Harriet Craig, that draws the viewer into the world of an extremely unsympathetic character and, in a refreshing change for 50's melodrama, the character gets exactly what she deserves.
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Based on a play by George Kelly called Craig's Wife that actually opened on Broadway way back in 1926, this crisp melodrama introduces us to Harriet Craig, a glamorous and domineering socialite who is a complete control freak who demands that her house is kept so, her servants behave just as she wants, and exacts the same kind of control over her sweet-natured second husband, Walter (Wendell Corey). Her duplicitous ways do catch up to her and, in classic melodrama fashion, and we actually revel in watching Harriet's allegedly perfect life implode before her eyes.
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James Gunn and Anne Froelich's adaptation of Kelly's play to the screen isn't as worried about making a play look more like a movie than it is about establishing a central character who earns the boos and hisses she deserves. Harriet's character is not only established in her behavior but the way other characters in the story react toward her. There's a great scene where a friend of Walter's wants to play golf with him on Sunday and Walter suggests that they have breakfast with Harriet before golf. Walter's friend, Billy, simply tells Walter when he pulls in the driveway, he will honk the horn.
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We see immediately what kind of woman Harriet is from the beginning of the film where we see a frantic young woman named Claire (KT Stevens) running around making final arrangements for a trip she and Harriet are making. Her efficiency at making sure everything is the way Harriet wants it makes us think this woman is her personal secretary. Imagine this reviewer's surprise when it is revealed that Claire is Harriet's cousin.
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Crawford chews the scenery with just the right amount of teeth, never going over the top and trying very hard to imbue this character with some sympathy, but the sympathy boat sails about halfway through the film with a beautifully written and acted scene where Harriet visits her husband's boss and talks him out of giving Walter a promotion that will send him out of the country for three months. I've seen a healthy chunk of Crawford's work, and I think this character is the closest thing to what I've always thought was the real Joan Crawford. I haven't seen a lot of Wendell Corey's work, but every time I see a movie of his, I like his performance more than the previous ones and this one was no exception...very underrated actor. This is Crawford's show though and her fans will be in heaven. 4

[James D. Gardiner]

Saw this just recently myself and have to agree with all the above points. An excellent film with Joan Crawford at the top of her game.

[Gideon58]

Free Guy
Video game junkies seem to be the intended demographic with 2021's Free Guy, a big budget sci-fi action comedy that provides solid entertainment value as long as you don't think about it too much.
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Ryan Reynolds stars as Guy, a mild-mannered bank teller whose mundane existence, with which he has been totally content, is not what he thought. Guy learns that he is a background character in a video game whose destiny is altered when he meets a primary character in the game, who is really the video avatar of one of the game's creators.
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The screenplay by Matt Leiberman and Zak Penn owes its influence to a lot of films like Inception, The Truman Show, Back to the Future, Star Wars, and Dead pool to name a few, but plot elements from these films have been juggled to give the appearance of originality. The dialogue is intelligent and funny, but the story moves at such a lightning pace, the viewer must just strap in and move with the story.
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And when the viewer moves with the story, we are deluged with enough technical splendor to make us forget the little plot points that we thought we wanted explained. Director Shawn Levy employs endless imagination in the mounting of this story, that is unapologetic for its lack of realism and impressive attention to continuity, which becomes key here.
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Levy's production values are spectacular with special nods to cinematography, art direction, film editing, and sound. Reynolds brings the same charm and wit he did to Deadpool and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) continues to prove her versatility as an actress. Also LOVED Taika Waititi, who won an Oscar for writing JoJo Rabbit, in a fun and flashy performance as the villain, the nasty owner of the company that created the video game. There are also cameos from the late Alex Trebek, Channing Tatum, Chris Evans, and Reynolds' wife Blake Lively. Don't try to figure it out, just strap in and enjoy. 4

[Gideon58]

The Incident (1967)
A few years before the similarly-themed The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, came a claustrophobic and unbearably intense drama called The Incident, which works due to meticulous and atmospheric direction and a superb ensemble cast of once and future stars serving this squirm-worthy story.
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It's around 2:00 AM in Manhattan when we see a group of people board the same car of a subway train and find themselves in danger when a pair of drunken thugs board the train, refuse to let the passengers get off the train and begin methodically terrorizing them.
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To be fair, the only real similarity between this film and Pelham is that they both take place on a subway train. The set-up of the film is actually a lot like The Poseidon Adventure where we get a peek into the lives of the passengers before they actually board the train and it's no coincidence that none of these people are happy before they board the train, but as the story progresses, we can see the troubles and tensions that they were feeling before the train just evaporate. But unlike Pelham, these guys are unarmed and weren't demanding a ransom...these were just two drunken guys out for kicks, making what they do all the more repellant.
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There are minor plot contrivances that initially bothered me but let go in favor of the big picture. Subway trains were much smaller in 1967 than they are today, but I was still surprised that all of the passengers actually crowded into the same car. Of course, they had to be in the same car for the story to work, but it just seemed a little convenient. It was also troubling that during the opening shots of these thugs on their way to the train, there was nary a soul on the streets. It was very effective in setting the mood for the piece, but for Manhattan, at 2:00 AM, even in 1967, a little unrealistic. The thugs bring bigotry and homophobia to this subway car and there is a final cinematic kick in the teeth when the police finally arrive that made my blood boil.
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Larry Peerce, who also directed Goodbye Columbus, definitely created the masterpiece of his somewhat limited career. Little details like the emasculated husband being nagged by his wife while all you see is her legs pacing on the platform, or the black wife communicating to her husband about the danger of his actually being amused by what these guys are doing. Tony Musante and Martin Sheen are gloriously over the top as our criminals and there is standout work from Ed McMahon, who apparently was quite the actor before becoming Johnny Carson's sidekick, Thelma Ritter, Jack Gilford, Brock Peters, Ruby Dee, and especially a very young Beau Bridges as a soldier on leave. An ugly drama that drew me in slowly until being completely riveted by what was going on. They don't make 'em like this anymore. 4

[Gideon58]

Career
Despite direction leaning toward the melodramatic, 1959's Career is a gritty and surprisingly realistic look at the business of show business that gets a big shot in the arm from some sizzling performances.
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This movie is an adult look at the ambition that drives people to reach the top in this very freaky and unpredictable business. The story begins in Manhattan and basically revolves around three characters: Sam Lawson (Anthony Franciosa) is a talented but unknown actor fresh off the bus from Lansing, who is willing to give up everything (including his wife) to become a star; Maury Novak (Dean Martin) is a slick and opportunistic producer of a failing off-Broadway theater company who has no qualms about taking shortcuts to fame and fortune; Sharon Kensington (Shirley MacLaine) is the boozy and slightly trampy daughter of an important Broadway producer who is willing to use her father or anything else to get what she wants...Maury in particular.
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I've complained in several reviews of other films on this subject, musicals in particular, that the portrayal of becoming a star is usually very unrealistic, simplistic, and happens way too quickly, but no such nonsense here. This story very realistically points out that very few people become stars overnight, that neither looks nor talent are a guarantee to success, and most importantly, that sometimes people sacrifice ethics and principles to get what they want.
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Loved the fact that Sam and Maury are both struggling at the beginning of the film, but after a flashforward, Sam is still struggling but Maury is one of the busiest directors in Hollywood. There's another secondary story where a character named Eric Peters can't get a job in New York because, despite his looks, can't get a job because he can't act. At the end of the second act, Eric is the highest paid actor in Hollywood and Sam is begging for a part in his latest movie. If the story makes one misstep, the film opens showing Sam waiting on tables than flashes back and tells his story. This was a common storytelling technique for moviemakers in the 1950's but it really took away some of the story's power. It would have been much more effective to show Sam's struggle that led him to waiting tables instead of telling us at the beginning that he's a waiter.
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Though he receives top billing, Dean Martin's role is really a supporting one, but he makes the most of it. Tony Franciosa offers a charismatic turn as the story's true lead that confirms the mystery as to why this guy never became a real movie star but found stardom on television eventually. Fresh off her Oscar-nominated performance in Some Came Running, MacLaine steals every scene she's in, as do Carolyn Jones as a lonely theatrical agent and Robert Middleton as MacLaine's father. For once, a movie about show business that really tries to tell it like it is. 4

[Citizen Rules]

Career rating_4Thank you, thank you, thank you! for recommending this film to me, it sounds just like my kind of film:) I just seen a clip of it and seen Donna Douglas from the Beverly Hillbillies, that alone makes me want to watch it. Of course I'm a big fan of early Shirley McClaine movies and Dean Martin as long as Jerry Lewis isn't in tow:p I plan on watching this one real soon!

[Gideon58]

I forgot to mention in my review that Donna Douglas was in the movie. She's a brunette though and her husband is played by Jerry Paris from The Dick Van Dyke Show.

[Gideon58]

Songbird
In a world that has been crippled by the Covid-19 Pandemic, I can't imagine the diseased mind that would think the 2020 apocalyptic thriller Songbird would be considered viable entertainment. In a world already terrorized by this deadly virus, the only purpose this reviewer can see for this film is to instill further fear and panic in moviegoers.
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The film is set in 2024 and the world has now been attacked by Covid-23 so clearly the effects of this pandemic and defense against it has reached far beyond masks and social distancing. Think back to when the world first went on lockdown and the streets were deserted. This is where we are as this film opens, only it's much worse. Masks and distancing aren't allowed because no one is allowed to leave their homes with the exception of law enforcement and something referred to as "couriers." This film looks at this much more dangerous pandemic through the eyes of one of these couriers who is trying to save his save his healthy girlfriend and her infected grandmother.
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This reviewer can't imagine what director and co-screenwriter Adam Mason was thinking as he crafted this depressing and convoluted drama that seems to have no other purpose than instilling fear about the virus, but the story offers myriad unanswered questions that immediately frustrate the viewer and eventually weigh the film down. This courier works for some kind of corporation called Lester's Gets and it's never explained exactly what Lester's Gets is and what this courier, Nico, does. The virus is now diagnosed with a smartphone-like device in a ,matter of seconds and if one tests positive, a message appears on the device that soldiers are on their way to the infected person's home. Some people are deemed "Immune" and are given passes that cost upward of $15,000.
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The devastating state of affair is fronted by a rather trite star-crossed romance between the courier and the girl, who initially we're told have known each other forever and then we're told they've never actually met. We also meet a sexual deviant who is selling fake passes and endangering his wife and daughter, which just didn't make sense amidst all the danger. Time would have been better spent with a wheelchair-bound veteran, played by Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell) who has felt on lockdown long before Covid-23.
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The entertainment value here was a mystery to this reviewer. KJ Apa, who plays Archie Andrews on the CW series Riverdale, shows some leading man potential, it's a shame the material isn't worthy of him. Bradley Whitford and Peter Stomare make the most of the roles, but this movie was just a bummer from start to finish. And a gold star to anyonewho can explain the title. 1.5

[Gideon58]

Sounder (1972)
A 1972 Best Picture nominee, Sounder is a warm and emotionally charged coming of age story that takes the viewer through a myriad of emotions and will definitely have one fighting tears at some point.
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Set in the deep south during the Depression, this the story of the Morgans, a dirt-poor family of black sharecroppers, working themselves to the bone and still going to bed hungry most of the time. The eldest son, David Lee, is forced to step up as the man of the family when his father, Nathan Lee, is arrested for stealing food for his family and sent to a prison work camp.
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This extraordinary piece of family entertainment is based on a novel by William H. Armstrong, adapted into an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Lonnie Elder III that paints a troubling and conflicted time in the deep south where blacks were free on paper. but, for the most part, were still living like slaves. We're shocked when Nathan Lee's wife, Rebecca tries to visit him the day after he's arrested and learns that women are forbidden to visit prisoners completely.
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This is where we see Rebecca step up the same way David Lee is forced to. Rebecca is a strong and proud black woman who has accepted her station in life, even if she knows it's not right, but also knows that fighting it is futile. Her heartbreak about her family's life is an undercurrent in every move she makes, but her intelligence is apparent as she is the only character in this movie who never makes a wrong move. Elder's screenplay also reminds us how important God and education is to most of these people. David Lee's desire to learn is beautifully showcased, even though his parents always refer to school as "that school".
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Director Martin Ritt employs extraordinary detail in presenting important moments in the journey of the Morgan family, often without dialogue. The moment where Nathan Lee returns home from prison and Rebecca makes that long run to greet him moves me to tears every time I watch this movie. This movie is still the powerful experience it was when I was 12 years old, the first time I saw it...the only time my entire family saw a movie together. Cicely Tyson's tower of strength Rebecca earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and Winfield's Nathan Lee earned him a Best Actor nomination as well. Kevin Hooks was robbed of a supporting actor nomination for his star-making turn as David Lee, that is the heart of this film. Hooks would eventually find his niche in the business as a director. That's Hooks' real life younger brother, Eric, playing his younger brother. Simply, an extraordinary motion picture experience, deeply moving and unforgettable. 5

[Gideon58]

The Strawberry Blonde
Warner Brothers knocked it out of the park with The Strawberry Blonde, a lavishly produced period comedy from 1941 that enchants the viewer thanks to polished direction and a cast of professionals working at the top of their game.
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Set in the Gay 90's, Biff Grimes (James Cagney) is a scrappy but likable young man studying to be a dentist who thinks he's in love with Virginia Brush (Rita Hayworth), the town tramp who strolls by the barbershop every Sunday so that all the men can whistle at her. Virginia has also caught the eye of a wealthy contractor named Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson), who has a love-hate relationship with Biff and talks him into going on a double date with Virginia and her girlfriend. Amy (Olivia de Havilland) who initially repels Biff with her "modern thinking", but gives her a chance when Virginia breaks a date with Biff so that she can marry Horace.
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The Epstein Brothers adapted the screenplay from a play that bombed on Broadway in 1927 and have brought us a delicious turn of the century battle of the sexes that has a contemporary flavor that gives the film appeal today. The characters are richly drawn from what initially appear to be cliches, but are all given layers we don't see coming. Biff is initially drawn as a tough guy, but turns out to have a great deal of sensitivity where the fairer sex is concerned. Amy seems to be sort of prude, who actually doesn't like to play games with men, using her position as the smartest character in the movie without rubbing it in anyone's face.
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The film actually opens in flashback with Biff and Amy already married, which I didn't understand in the beginning, but by the time we reached the finale, it became clear. The spirit of the gay 90's and the way man and women treated each other back then is a lovely canvas for the story, showing us a lot of things we don't see anymore. Love when Biff and Virginia are in the park and before Virginia sits on a bench, Biff dusts off the bench and places the cloth on the bench for her sit on. Also loved the scene where the quartet have dinner together and are struggling with how to consume the latest gourmet sensation from Europe...spaghetti and meatballs.
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Director Raoul Walsh puts a lot of detail into the mounting of this lovely story, especially in establishing the period and the superb performances he gets from the cast. Cagney's Biff Grimes is tough and goofy, but always remains totally likable throughout the story and establishes a nice rapport with de Havilland, whose quiet intelligence in her role is easy to overlook. Jack Carson is his usually blustery smart-ass, but the real surprise here is Rita Hayworth as Virginia. Hayworth's reputation as one of cinema's great sex goddesses is well-known, but in this film she actually displays genuine acting talent, bringing us a crisp and ultimately seductive villainess, who actually has a brain that she knows when to use and when to shelve. Can't help but think Walsh had a lot to do with this performance but it works. The film features elaborate settings and costumes that demanded technicolor, but the film was a joy from beginning to end. 4

[Gideon58]

The Lighthouse
It's a deeply disturbing film with zero re-watch appeal, but 2019's The Lighthouse, a chilling look at the effect of isolation on sanity had this reviewer simultaneously riveted, repulsed, confused, frightened, but never bored.
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The setting is New England in the 1890's where we watch Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), a veteran lighthouse keeper, return to the lighthouse he worked at before with a new co-worker named Thomas Howard (Robert Pattinson). As we watch Wake and Howard settle into their new assignment, it becomes apparent that Wake is in charge (or at least he thinks so), treating Howard like a slave and warning him of the dangers of the assignment, putting special emphasis on the fact that Howard is never to enter the part of the lighthouse where the light is located. It's not long before the isolation of this assignment has the viewer questioning the sanity of these two people or whether or not the entire thing is a living nightmare.
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Director and co-screenwriter Robert Eggars has crafted a creepy story of two people trying to cling to their sanity, without ever providing the viewer with definitive proof as to whether or not what we're seeing is just a hellacious nightmare. We're not surprised when it's just a matter of Wake working Howard to the bone or even when he has to force him to drink. We don't even question the fact that Wake only treats Howard like a human being when they're sharing a meal. but when these men start pumping each other about there respective pasts, we begin to wonder if anything we're witnessing is actually happening. I love the way Eggars establishes the isolation of the story with that long shot of ship that dropped the men sailing away from the island
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The screenplay by Eggars and his brother Max is rich with with a lot of Irish slang that lends an air of mystery to what the characters are talking about, but not so much that our interest wanes. The Eggars have crafted a two-character story that features brief appearances by other characters that are never legitimized to the point that we're not sure if they are just hallucinations of the two central characters. Wake's warning to Howard of the bad luck associated with harming a sea gull, comes frighteningly to life, a little reminiscent of Melanie Daniels in The Birds.
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Films like The Shining and Cast Away come to mind as this frightening look at the effect of isolation never commits to any kind reality, despite some ugly and frightening imagery that often turns the stomach and keeps the viewer wondering throughout whether or not we're seeing is really happening. This reviewer was equally fascinated and repulsed by this film and as much I appreciated the craftsmanship, there's no way I could sit through this film again. The movie is beautifully photographed in black and white, its cinematography earning the film its only Oscar nomination. Four-time Oscar nominee Dafoe offers another Oscar-worthy turn in a role he truly loses himself in, as he did playing Van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate and Pattinson brings the same intensity to this role as he did to his role in Good Time. This an ugly and haunting story but worth the watch...once. 4

[Gideon58]

Snoopy Come Home
1972's Snoopy Come Home is the second feature length film based on Charles M Schultz characters putting its primary scene-stealer center stage in a sweet and sad story that entertained me today as much as it did 40 years ago.
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As the film opens, we find Snoopy feeling taken for granted by owner Charlie Brown, his friends, and ostracized by society in general when he starts seeing "No Dogs Allowed" signs everywhere he goes. Snoopy is thrown for a loop when he receives a letter from his former owner, a little girl named Lila, who is sick in the hospital and wants Snoopy to visit her. Snoopy quickly hops off the top of his doghouse, throws his supper dish on his head, gives his "worldly possessions" away, and summons his aeronautically-challenged bird BFF, Woodstock to take the long journey with him to visit Lila.
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Once again, as with A Boy Named Charlie Brown, these timeless characters brought me right back to my childhood, completely enraptured by a rather mundane story on the surface made wonderfully entertaining by a hysterically funny central character, with an equally funny sidekick, neither of whom speak a word by the way, and still command the screen.
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With a tiny addition to Snoopy's backstory, Schultz has given us a story that actually provides some surprises along the way. The funniest of which is when Snoopy and Woodstock are kidnapped by a crazy little girl named Clara who renames Snoopy Rex and decides to keep him as her new pet. This was a perfect interruption to Snoopy's journey that not only had me rolling on the floor with laughter, but featured the best song in the movie "Fundamental Friendship Dependability."
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Other highlights from the score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (Mary Poppins) include "At the Beach", "No Dogs Allowed", "Do You Remember Me?", the strangely dark "It Changes" and, of course, the title tune.
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It's also fun watching the kids missing Snoopy in their own ego-centric manner, each thinking they are personally responsible for Snoopy leaving, especially the perpetually self-absorbed Peppermint Patty. Also loved the soap opera style twist when Snoopy and Lila finally do reunite, and Lila tries to manipulate Snoopy into staying with her. Can't believe this movie was just as entertaining today as it was when I saw it during its original theatrical release when I was 12 years old. 4

[Gideon58]

The Starling
A 2021 Netflix production, The Starling is an emotionally manipulative look at familiar cinematic territory that does make some unusual moves we don't see coming and does wrap things up a little too conveniently, but is still worth a look thanks to some superb performances.
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Lilly and Jack Maynard lost their baby daughter, Kate, a year ago. Kate's death motivated Jack to attempt suicide and end up institutionalized. On the surface, it appears that Lilly has just buried all of her feelings about what happened and is just trying to help Jack by coming to family night at the hospital every Tuesday. In an attempt to move on, Kate's attempt to re-start her garden find her in an actual battle with a starling, who keeps attacking Lilly in order to protect her babies, but these attacks, along with her opening up to a psychiatrist turned vet named Larry Fine, begin an actual healing process for Lilly.
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The screenplay for this somewhat original take on the grieving process is by Matt Harris, whose primary experience in filmmaking is in the documentary genre, but he shows promise here with a story that challenges the viewer at every turn as we are forced to accept an actually relationship develop between a human being and a bird and how it might be a good thing for both of them.
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We aren't provided details about what happened to Kate, but it becomes irrelevant as we see that Jack is wracked with guilt over what happened. It was interesting that all we learned was that Jack overslept. It's a little confusing when it's revealed that Jack is afraid to leave the hospital, but is fighting the treatment he is getting there. We're almost ready to give up when Jack doesn't want to see Lilly anymore. On the other hand, we're fascinated as Lilly actually starts opening up to Dr. Fine. Didn't understand the lunacy of him being a former shrink turned vet, but it brought a nice bit of lunacy to the proceedings that kept the story from being such a downer. As much as we want to see Lilly and Jack work things out, most of the actually work is skipped over, leading to a rushed conclusion that is a little pat and convenient.
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The direction by Theodore Melfi, who directed 2016 Best Picture nominee Hidden Figures, is a little overheated, especially in those opening shots of the starlings swooping in on people, almost giving the story the feel of a horror film, but his work on those scenes of Lilly dealing with the house and the garden possesses style and sensitivity.
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Melissa McCarthy, who was directed by Melfi in St. Vincent delivers a lovely and often moving performance as Lily, but it's Chris O'Dowd, who does the powerhouse work that keeps this movie on sizzle as the deeply tortured Jack. I haven't seen a lot of O'Dowd's work, but this was a mesmerizing performance worthy of an Oscar nomination . Oscar winner Kevin Kline keeps it light and airy as Dr. Fine, allowing McCarthy's character to move their scenes together. Timothy Olyphant, Loretta Devine, and Daveed Diggs make the most of thankless roles, but it's the work of McCarthy and O'Dowd that kept me invested here. 3.5

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Fantasia (1940)
For its technical mastery alone, the 1940 Disney classic Fantasia is an uncanny blending of animation and music unlike anything seen up to that point and since. This is a piece of cinema that demands to be experienced and applauded for a singular contribution to the history of cinema.
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This film offers six animated interpretations of great classical music in completely distinct forms for each piece of music. The animation styles deal from abstract shapes and colors to actual story set to music. The music is performed by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and a brief introduction to each piece is provided by a music critic and composer named Deems Taylor.
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Disney must be applauded for the bold choice of only his third feature length animated film as something so out of the box. This seemed like something that the filmmaker would do after earning the reputation to bring a passion project to the screen. Watching this, I had to wonder who the intended demographic for this was, because, despite the animation, a lot of this material was not for children, especially the first couple of pieces which were steeped in the abstract. Taylor's introductions to the films were a little more detailed than necessary, making the film a lot longer than it needed to be.
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I did like the fact that Disney had the wisdom to choose a lot of music that even the most general music lover is familiar with, like the music from The Nutcracker and give the music completely different animated concepts from we expected. I liked that sometimes the animation interpreted the music note by note and other times it just interpreted the mood of what was going on.
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The imagery ranges from frightening to humorous to erotic (the images of those female centaurs were surprisingly adult for a 1940 Disney film). Needless to say, production values were first rate, especially sound and sound editing. Appointment viewing for lovers of music and animation. Remade in 1985 and 2000. 4

[SpelingError]

Fantasia is great. I watched it for the first time earlier this year and really liked it. Nice review :up:

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The Anniversary
A deliciously over-the-top performance from Bette Davis absolutely makes a campy black comedy from 1968 called The Anniversary worth a look.
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Davis plays Mrs. Taggart, the manipulative widow and mother of three sons who now run the construction company that their father owned. Eldest son Henry has a proclivity for stealing and wearing women's lingerie; middle son Terry is being paid by his mother every time he gets his wife, Karen pregnant, and youngest son Tom is about introduce his pregnant fiancee, Shirley, to his mother at the annual anniversary celebration that she holds annual, despite the fact that her husband has been dead for years.
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This bizarre and unapologetic story features a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, who wrote the screenplay for Davis' previous film The Nanny. It's stage origins are apparent immediately as the action only occasionally leaves Mrs. Taggart's elaborate and gothic living room. Before we get there, the story cleverly sets up the events that are about to unfold before us by introducing us to the three sons and their clear dread and disgust about having to attend this annual freak show.
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The story wasn't quite what I expected, which was the guests at a dinner table where a place was set for the dead father, though there are moments in the story where Mrs. Taggart does address her husband's portrait. What we do have is a woman who completely runs her sons' lives and react to it individually: Henry tries to stay out of his mother's way, Terry bows to Mrs. Taggart's every whim like a ten year old, and Tom seems to be the family rebel, but even he turns out to be controlled by his mother, though he doesn't always realize it.
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Mrs. Taggart is the show here...love when she asks Shirley to sit somewhere else because she detests body odor or insists that her guest offer some kind of performance for her anniversary celebration, which turns out to be not so much about her marriage but how she completely controls the lives of her three sons.
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Davis hadn't chewed scenery like this since Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Even with one eye covered with an eye patch, those "Bette Davis eyes" have rarely been so mesmerizing, in a performance that mesmerizes the viewer to a completely reprehensible character who doesn't make a single likable move during the story, but Davis' walk of the fine line between evil and insane makes this film worth sitting through all by itself. 3

[Citizen Rules]

The Anniversary
A deliciously over-the-top performance from Bette Davis absolutely makes a campy black comedy from 1968 called The Anniversary worth a look.

Davis hadn't chewed scenery like this since Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Even with one eye covered with an eye patch, those "Bette Davis eyes" have rarely been so mesmerizing, in a performance that mesmerizes the viewer to a completely reprehensible character who doesn't make a single likable move during the story, but Davis' walk of the fine line between evil and insane makes this film worth sitting through all by itself. rating_3So true! I loved this movie and it's quite unique, once seen it's hard to forget.

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Served: Harvey Weinstein
Anyone who might have doubts as to whether or not Harvey Weinstein got what was coming to him needs to check out a 2020 documentary called Served: Harvey Weinstein, which is not only an up close and personal look at the rise and fall of the disgraced movie mogul, but an insightful look into this toxic disease that's poisoning this country known as sexual harassment.
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The film begins with a brief overview of Weinstein's meteoric rise to the Hollywood stratosphere as the force behind Miramax, along with his brother, Bob. It was interesting learning about the kind of power Weinstein wielded over Hollywood, even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Apparently, Weinstein had the power to buy Oscars, the most glaring example being Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. Details as to exactly how this power worked weren't offered.
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Loved the use of the adjective "bully" when talking about Weinstein. He was a sexual bully who reinforced the old hat concept of the "casting couch", while completely denying he did anything wrong. He claims his innocence to this day and in the only real statement he made about the charges which sent him to jail for 23 years, he referred to what he did as "possibly bad behavior, was sorry, and would try to do better." It's mind blowing that over 100 women came forward with stories about the man but they were only able to bring charges regarding two of them. The most disgusting fact I learned here is that settling a sexual harassment lawsuit is now considered a legal tax deduction. Let's hear it for the justice system
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As the documentary moves briefly away from Weinstein and into general discussion of sexual harassment, it's revealed that the primary reason for this behavior is the lack of females in real power roles in Hollywood. This is understandable, the the flip side, which isn't really discussed here, did all of these women really not know what they were getting into when they arrived for "meetings" at Harvey's hotel suite. The man ran a major studio, he didn't have an office? And did you know that the only reason Joan Collins didn't get the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra was because she refused to sleep with the director.
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The film seems a little one-sided, but as it progressed, I realized there really was only one side. Commentary is provided by Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Gloria Allred, Matt Damon, Rosanna Arquette, and George Clooney among others. It's a "no frills" documentary that does offer new and relevant information on a disturbing subject. 3.5

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Joe Somebody
The star and director of The Santa Clause reunited for 2001's Joe Somebody, a testosterone-charged but predictable comedy that remains watchable thanks to some terrific performances.
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Tim Allen plays Joe Scheffer, the unassuming "Video Communications Director" at a large pharmaceutical company for ten years who , in the presence of his daughter (Hayden Pannetiere) and dozens of fellow employees, gets beat up in the parking lot by the office bully (Patrick Warburton). He decides the only way to get his dignity back is by challenging said bully to a rematch.
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After Joe makes his challenge, he suddenly becomes the most popular guy in the office because everyone apparently hates this guy. He also attracts the attention of a pretty co-worker (Julie Bowen) trying to talk him out of the rematch because the HR manager (Greg Germann) is afraid Joe might sue the company.
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Director Joe Pasquin's resume consists mostly of television and it becomes apparent as the film progresses. Love the way it starts off with Joe going into a deep depression, not even taking off the blood-stained shirt he was wearing in the parking lot. Unfortunately, the story gets a little scattered with too much screentime spent on a squash game and his ex-wife and the office tramp suddenly wanting him. It's every man's dream but it doesn't exactly smack of realism. We know where this story is going and though the ending is more than satisfactory, it takes way too long to get there.
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Tim Allen gives one of his most endearing performances in the title role and is well-matched with Bowen. Hayden Pannetiere lights up the screen as Joe's daughter as does Jim Belushi as the actor turned martial arts teacher who trains Joe. Germann does another of his patented slimy turns and Warburton does bring a little substance to the bully, but the screenplay tries to cover a little too much territory. 3

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Otherhood
Despite a lot of talent on both sides of the camera, the 2019 comedy Otherhood is a formulaic comedy that has an overly complex screenplay filled with everything but originality and comes off as a long episode of a television sitcom.
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Helen (Felicity Huffman), Carol (Angela Bassett), and Gillian (Patricia Arquette) are lifelong BFF's who have gone through everything together, including the raising of their three grown sons, who all reside in Manhattan. The ladies get together one Mother's Day when none of them have heard from their sons and, deciding not to take the snub lying down, drive to Manhattan and invade their sons' lives, demanding to move in for awhile and find out exactly what is going on with their boys.
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Director and co-screenwriter Cindy Chupack has extensive experience in television as an executive producer of shows like Modern Family and Sex and the City and co-screenwriter Mark Andrus received an Oscar nomination for co-writing As Good as it Gets with James L Brooks, but the story they comes up with here is very busy and seems to want our sympathies to be with these three moms but it just didn't work for me.
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There's no way to really justify these three women invading their sons' lives which made it hard to feel sympathy when their sons didn't put their lives on hold when their mothers showed up at their doorsteps uninvited and pushed their way in. Helen's story was the most interesting...she has never forgiven her gay son for never officially coming out to her but refuses to accept it when she learns why (among other secrets).
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Chupack mounts the film as three different stories and, as a result, an hour and 40 minute movie seems three hours long. Her lack of movie experience really shows here and this never quite gels as a movie. Huffman and Oscar winner Arquette are terrific, as is Jake Hoffman as Arquette's son, but this one doesn't quite work thanks to a sitcom-styled script that brought nothing nee to the cinematic table. 2.5

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Skirts Ahoy
From the folks at MGM who brought us Two Girls and a Sailor comes Skirts Ahoy, glossy musical comedy from the Joe Pasternak unit of the studio that is sort of a gender-switch version of musicals like Anchors Aweigh and On the Town that don't measure up those classics due to some questionable casting, unnecessary characters, and musical interludes that go on too long.
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Whitney (Esther Williams), Yancy (Vivian Blaine), and Mary Kate (Joan Evans) are three gals who decided to escape romantic pasts by joining the Navy, but find romance even more complicated after becoming waves, especially Whitney's pursuit of a handsome navy doctor (Barry Sullivan).
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There's a lot of talent in front of behind the camera in this 1952 musical, including a cute screenplay from Isobel Lennart, who, a couple of years later, would earn the first of two Oscar nominations for the screenplay to Love Me Or Leave Me. The story has a surprisingly feminist leaning for a 50's MGM musical with a dominating theme that women don't really need men, not to mention that Williams' character is chasing Sullivan's character.
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Loved the opening of the film where we see Mary Kate left at the altar, Whitney leaving her groom at the altar, and Yancy selling wedding gowns and losing track of boyfriend Archie. After the girls join the Navy, the story gets spread a little thin with a lot of uninteresting supporting characters and unknown specialty acts, like singing quintuplets called The DeMarco Sisters and a little old man janitor crushing on Whitney who slow things down. There is a terrific specialty number featuring Bobby Van and Debbie Reynolds that livens things up.
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Director Sidney Lanfield does manage to get Esther in the water three times, though the first time with a pair of kids seems to come out of nowhere. Also loved a trio the leads did called "What Good is a Gal". Williams offers one of her more charming turns but Sullivan and Evns are a little too straight-faced in their roles. It's actually Vivian Blaine, fresh off her Broadway triumph as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, whose vivacious scene-stealing performance begs for much more screentime than she's given. It's better than Two Girls and a Sailor, but it's no On the Town. 3

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Despite the standard biopic execution of the screenplay, 2021's The Eyes of Tammy Faye,a laid-bare look at the rise and fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL ministries, remains watchable thanks to some flashy directorial touches and some near brilliant performances.
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The film opens in the late 60's tracing the relationship of Jim and Tammy Faye from their quickie marriage and how their plan to tour the country spreading the word of the Lord questionably ballooned into a multi-millionaire television ministry that had millions of religious devotees mesmerized, but also had the religious factor's eye on them, not to mention the methodical destruction of the Bakker's marriage.
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Abe Silva's cliched screenplay is actually based on a documentary made by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato that takes the story of the Bakkers and turns it into the standard biopic, going the same way we've seen a hundred other biopics go, but it also allows to look a little more closely at the Bakkers and their motivations the way a documentary can't, but the whole "rise and fall" style of the screenplay was just so "been there done that."
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Silvia and director Michael Showalter do put their own spin on what happens with the Bakkers. I love the early scene shortly after their wedding where Jim shows up at his in-laws house with a new car and never really explains where he got the money to pay for it. This became the recurring theme of what happened to the Bakkers. Jim did a lot of dirt to get what he wanted and left Tammy Faye in the dark about most of it and she apparently liked being in the dark and enjoying the perks of what hubby was doing. There was just enough dirt revealed about their marriage to keep things interesting, including Bakker's alleged affairs with male staffers and male prostitutes, in addition to Jessica Hahn.
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It was funny watching Showalter trying to establish Tammy Faye as a victim in a lot of what happened to the Bakkers. More than once, we get a scene of Tammy quietly approaching to hear a private conversation, realize she's hearing something she shouldn't or didn't want to hear, and then pretending she didn't hear anything. Apparently, Tammy Faye loved the bling that the PTL ministry brought to her life, but didn't want to know how it came to be. Whether this is true, who's to say, but that's how Tammy Faye comes off in this movie, making it hard to sympathize with her or her scummy husband.
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As unattractive as the subjects might be, I found myself riveted thanks to the dazzling, Oscar-worthy performances of Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker. These actors completely lose themselves in these roles without trying to garner sympathy for these people who don't deserve it. Cherry Jones and Vincent d'Onofrio also make the most of their roles as Tammy Faye's mother and Jerry Falwell, respectively. Art direction, film editing, and makeup also deserve mention in this look at an ugly real life scandal that could have utilized a little more imagination in execution. 3.5

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Somebody Killed her Husband
Though the film has been maligned for years as garbage, I still think hardcore Jeff Bridges fans will find entertainment value in 1978's Somebody Killed Her Husband, a silly black comedy whose original purpose was to make a movie star out of the leading lady.
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Bridges plays Jerry Green, a Macy's employee who starts an affair with an unhappily married beauty with a child named Jenny Moore (Farrah Fawcett-Majors). One Sunday afternoon at Jenny's apartment, she and Jerry are interrupted by her husband's return home, but as they go downstairs to confront him about their affair, they find him on the kitchen floor with a knife in his back. Jerry decides the only way for them to avoid blame for Mr. Moore's death is to find out who did it.
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Reginald Rose, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing 12 Angry Men, is, believe it or not, the screenwriter for this cockeyed murder mystery that seems to make less and less sense as it progresses, because as Jerry and Jenny begin trying to figure out what happened to her husband, more bodies begin to drop. The viewer is confused because as the story progresses, Jerry seems to become more and more panicked and Jenny seems to care less and less, leading the viewer to thinking they know exactly what's going on, but they don't.
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This was the first film that Fawcett- Majors (yes, she was still married to Lee at the time). made after leaving the smash hit TV series Charlie's Angels, which made Farrah the biggest star on the planet. Unfortunately, while Farrah was making this movie, she was also in the middle of being sued by ABC for breach of contract, a suit that was settled by Farrah agreeing to make limited appearances as Jill Monroe the next season. Needless, to say, Farrah's head was not completely in this movie and it really shows in her performance. She has moments onscreen where she seems to have no idea what she's supposed to be doing or feeling.
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Bridges, on the other hand, is completely invested in this physically demanding role where he seems to be channeling Woody Allen, giving the character an undeniable charm that keeps the viewer curious as to how he's going to get out of this. It's Bridges' endless charm that almost saves this movie. The supporting cast is rich with New York theater actors, including two original cast members of the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, but what you walk away from this movie with is the goofy charm of Jeff Bridges and how it make a meh movie seem much better than it is. 3

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Queenpins
2021's Queenpins is a fact-based black comedy that is often hard to believe as logic and credibility are stretched at every turn, but some clever writing and some on-target performances provide pretty consistent entertainment.
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Connie and JoJo are a pair of Phoenix, Arizona housewives who live next door to each other and are obsessed with clipping coupons. One day, Connie writes a letter to General Mills to complain that a box of Wheaties she bought was stale. The company sends her a coupon for a free box and this leads her and JoJo to begin selling fake coupons by traveling to the company in Mexico where the coupons are manufactured and stealing them in bulk, and then selling them. But when the amount of money they make on their website causes the website to freeze, it is the beginning of the end as a Loss Prevention officer from a supermarket chain and a US Postal Inspector are on their trail.
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This film is the brainchild of a pair of documentary filmmakers named Aaron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, whose experience with documentaries really shows in the execution of this often unbelievable story. They make sure we know every time the story changes locations, though the modest $7,000,000 budget makes it pretty obvious that the film was made in a studio. There's a lot of detail put into the execution of this elaborate crime, but there's also a lot of attention in the creation of Connie and JoJo so that they we are mad about them early on and almost overlook how ridiculous it is to believe what these two women get away.
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Loved some of the details provided about Connie and JoJo during the exposition setting up the story. My curiosity was piqued when it was revealed that Connie is a former Olympian, that her husband is an IRS auditor, and that JoJo is living with her mother now because years ago someone stole her identity. Not your standard introductions to movie characters and we have to wonder how they're going to figure into the story coming our way. Some do and some don't, but the ones that do, are surprisingly well-executed. The relationship between Connie and JoJo is a lovely mirror to the relationship that develops between the Loss Prevention Guy and the Postal Inspector. Of course, the complicated cat and mouse game is intricate and fun, but as usual with stories like this, Connie and JoJo are well-protected and get off a little easier than they probably should have.
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Gaudet and Pullapilly make an impressive debut producing film fiction and get a strong assist from film editor Kayla Emter. Kristen Bell offers the strongest performance I've seen from her as Connie and Kirby Howell-Baptiste lights up the screen as JoJo. Vince Vaughn underplays beautifully as the postal inspector and Joel McHale is fun as Connie's tight-assed husband, but it is Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell) who effortlessly steals this movie as the Loss Prevention Officer who finds his life energized by getting to the bottom of what's happening here. Hauser doesn't make a false move in this movie, making me laugh with just about every move he makes and is a big part of why we forgive a lot of the ridiculous that goes on here. 3.5

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Tom, Dick, and Harry
Another delightful performance from Ginger Rogers is at the heart of a breezy romantic comedy from 1941 film called Tom, Dick, and Harry.
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Rogers plays Janie, a small town working girl who has always dreamed of marrying a rich man and if she happens to be in love with him, that would be nice but it's not a deal breaker. In this film, Janie finds herself being pursued by three different guys: Tom (George Murphy) is a stuffy car salesman who has been dating Janie for a long time, but doesn't seem interested in moving their relationship to the next level, any level, but Janie does pressure him into a marriage proposal, even though she's not in love with him.
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The day after she becomes engaged, Janie meets a charming but unambitious garage mechanic named Harry (Burgess Meredith), who makes sparks with Janie after they kiss, but Janie writes him off because she learns he's not rich and has no desire to get rich. Through Harry's introduction, Janie then meets Dick (Alan Marshal), a wealthy playboy who talks Janie into flying with him to Chicago. Janie also gets proposals from Dick and Harry and is apparently in no mood to narrow the proposals down to one fiancee.
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Rogers was fresh off her surprise Oscar win for Best Actress for Kitty Foyle and chose this witty adult story by Paul Jarrico, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Despite a central character who is sometimes kind of annoying, we want to slap her and tell her to wake up, but we don't because of Rogers' rich performance in the starring role, sporting the same unflattering hair color she did in Kitty Foyle. The initial fun in the story, including the three elaborate fantasy sequences, which are mounted as dreams of Janie picturing life with Tom, Dick, and Harry, is provided a more adult layer when Harry decides to check out Dick and ends up tricking Dick into driving him and Janie on a date.
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It's immediately obvious which guy Janie should be with, but the journey to that reveal is a lot more fun than you might think. Rogers is superb, as always, but the unexpected delight here was Burgess Meredith, an actor never known as a romantic leading man, but nailing it, a funny and charming performance that almost has him stealing Rogers' thunder. Aided by first rate production values, Rogers and Meredith make this worth a look. The film was remade in 1957 as the final project of the studio that made this film, RKO. The film was a remade as a musical with Jane Powell in the starring role and was called The girl Most Likely, but I think the original is a little superior thanks to a slightly darker edge to the screenplay. 3.5

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Love Hard
Despite a somewhat formulaic screenplay, Netflix has brought us a relatively entertaining romantic comedy called Love Hard, which looks at navigating love's choppy waters through social media. It's about as predictable as they come, but the characters are so likable that we want to stick it out and make sure it comes out the way it's supposed to.
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This 2021 comedy is centered around Natalie Bauer, a romantically-challenged writer whose disastrous love life has become her bread and butter. Through a dating app, Natalie begins an online romance with a guy named Josh, who lives in Lake Placid, NY. Natalie is so convinced that Josh might be "the one", that she impulsively decides to fly to Lake Placid to meet Josh. Upon her arrival, Natalie learns that she has been catfished as Josh has been sending her pictures of his BFF Tag. Josh feels so guilty that he agrees to get Natalie together with Tag if Natalie will pretend to be his girlfriend for Christmas with his family and stage a breakup after Christmas so she can be with Tag.
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The screenplay by Daniel Mackey and Rebecca Ewing is rampantly predictable but does have a certain charm to it, thanks to some very likable characters at the center of the story and we want to see everyone get what they want. But once Natalie meets Tag and Josh's older brother, Owen, we realize there is a light at the end of the cinematic tunnel.
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The opening scenes establishing Natalie's love life up to this point are overly cute, but once Natalie gets to Lake Placid, the story definitely perks up. Loved Josh and Natalie's take on "Baby, it's Cold Outside" and the scene at the nursing home where Josh and Natalie have been brought to offer advice about online dating.
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Director Hernan Jiminez shows some skill behind the camera and works wonders with a "B" movie cast. Nina Dobrev, an actress known primarily for her work in television, works very hard to make us fall in love with Natalie and she succeeds for the most part. Jimmy O. Lang does a real movie star turn as Josh though, as does Harry Shum Jr as his brother Owen and James Saito as Josh's dad. It's not exactly When Harry Met Sally, but there is some fun to be had here. And I LOVED the terribly predictable climax. 3

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I Love You to Death (1990)
Incredibly, based on a true story, 1990's I Love You to Death is a deliciously over the top black comedy that provides pretty consistent laughs and was also the third of five collaborations between actor Kevin Kline and director Lawrence Kasdan,
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Kline plays Joey, the owner of a pizza parlor who runs the business with his wife Rosalie (Tracey Ullmann) and a sensitive young busboy named Devo (the late River Phoenix). Joey loves his wife and two kids, but he is also a serial womanizer who thinks its his privilege as a man to cheat. Rosalie has always been in denial about it, but when she does finally catch him in the act, she won't divorce him because she's catholic, so she sees the only logical solution is Joey's death.
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John Kostmayer's screenplay is rich with ethnic atmosphere, but it's also a little simplistic in the mounting of the story. Setting up Joey's character is done to such great effect that once it's revealed who Joey really is, we really like him and really don't want to see harm come to him. On the other hand, it was a little hard to swallow that after everything that happens to Joey in the movie that he's still alive. The story also provides a redemption for Joey's character that seems convenient and comes out of nowhere.
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Once again, Kasdan shows his gift for dealing with ensemble casts (The Big Chill, Silverado, Grand Canyon) and gets winning performances from his hand-picked cast. Fresh off his Oscar-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda, Kevin Kline lights up the screen as Joey, making us like a character who really doesn't deserve it. Tracey Ullman is vividly real as Rosalie...watch those few moments right after she catches Joey cheating. Also loved Joan Plowright as Rosalie's mother and River Phoenix was all kinds of adorable as Devo. William Hurt and Keanu Reeves also made their screentime count as a pair stoned would-be hitmen. Not Kasdan's strongest work, but maybe his most underrated. 3.5

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Passing
Actress Rebecca Hall makes a competent directorial debut with a 2021 Netflix drama called Passing, a dry and slightly pretentious look at racial tension on a fresh canvas, from an unusual source, but the performances are impeccable.
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Hall also wrote the screenplay for this drama that takes place during the roaring 20's, focusing on the reunion between two female, light-skinned black women. Irene is married with two kids and lives in Harlem. Clare lives in Manhattan with her white husband and son. We also learn that not only is Clare married to a white man, but that she is passing...she is pretending to be white, even though her husband is a card-carrying bigot who comes right out and says he hates Negroes (though that's not the word he uses).
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Looking at this film as nothing more than a piece of filmmaking, there is a lot to admire here...Hall's cinematic eye is undeniably sharp, creating striking cinematic images that stay with the viewer, made even more impressive by the stunning, Oscar-worthy, black and white cinematography, aiding in the visual feast this film is, but still found myself curiously unmoved by Hall's story, which just might not have been a good fit for her.
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Race relations in the roaring 20's were in an odd place...slavery was over, but the "N" word was prominent and black people were still being lynched. To mount a story involving someone passing, might have been something a little above Hall's pay grade. I never bought Clare looking light enough to pass and Irene was not light enough to be mistaken for white, which took all the legitimacy out of the story. The first time Clare's husband meets Irene, I didn't buy that that he didn't know Irene was black and didn't throw her out of his house.
And then we're supposed to buy Clare being attracted to Irene's husband? There's a whole lot of dramatic license required by the viewer to really make this fly.
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Hall is to be commended for her ambition here, but it slightly overwhelms her skill in presenting a story that maybe should have been left to another writer/director. She knows how to work with actors though. Tessa Thompson (Creed)is poised and eloquent as Irene and Oscar nominee Ruth Negga (Loving) makes an enchanting and tragic Clare. The ladies receive solid support from Andre Holland, who played adult Kevin in 2016's Best Picture Moonlight as Irene's husband and the always reliable alexander Skarsgaard as Clare's husband. Hall gets an "A" for effort though. 3

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Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Tim Burton makes an impressive feature length directorial debut with the now minor classic Pee Wee's Big Adventure, a splashy, big-budget rendering of a relatively simple story blown up to gigantic proportions with a silly but extremely likable hero at the center of it, who became so popular the actor pretty much created an entire career out of it.
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This 1985 comic romp stars Paul Reubens as Pee Wee, a geeky man/child whose prize possession, his big red shiny bike, is stolen by his rich nemesis, Francis, but Francis fools Pee Wee into thinking he had nothing to do with it. After seeking help from police and friends, Pee Wee seeks help from a phony fortune teller, who tells Pee Wee that his bike is in the basement at the Alamo, so Pee Wee is off to Texas to get his bike back.
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Reubens, the late Phil Hartman, and Michael Varhol collaborated on this very funny screenplay that actually starts out as almost a character study, a study of what is probably the closest thing I have seen to a live action rendering of a cartoon character, brought vividly to life onto a Disney-type canvas, spending an inordinate amount of time talking to inanimate objects and living in his own world, suddenly forced into the real world by the disappearance of his beloved bike.
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Burton, who would go on to rack up an impressive resume including the 1989 Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Ed Wood, goes to exhaustive lengths here to make sure he has mounted a story that provides action and laughs and shows no interest in logic or realism. If you're interested in a story that makes sense, you've got the wrong movie. This reviewer was especially entertained by Pee Wee's encounter with an escaped convict named Mickey, his close encounter with a lonely waitress named Simone, and, of course, his classic dance in a biker bar to "Tequila." And just when you think the chase through the Hollywood movie studio is enough, the 4th wall comes completely down and we learn that Pee Wee's story has the caught the eye of a movie producer (Tony Bill) who wants to turn it into a movie.
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Reubens created one of cinema's most likable characters here. He became so popular he not only did two more movies, two television series, which earned him three Emmy nominations and a Broadway musical in 2011. Reubens terrific supporting cast includes Judd Omen as Mickey. You might remember Omen as one of the bank robbers who kidnaps Chevy Chase in Seems Like Old Time. Diane Salinger is fun as Simone as is Mark Holton as the obnoxious Francis. A few other familiar faces pop up along the way including Elizabeth Daily as Dottie, Marcia Lewis as the ghost of a cab driver, James Brolin as movie Pee Wee, Morgan Fairchild as movie Dottie, and the late Jan Hooks as a perky Alamo tour guide. Though it's Burton's imaginative mounting of this story and Reuben's creation of this one of a kind movie character that keep the viewer invested and entertained. 3.5

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Michael Che: Shame the Devil
SNL's Michael Che picks up the mike for the first time in six years with 2021's Michael Che: Shame the Devil, which felt more in touch with the what's going on in the world than his last special, but wasn't nearly as funny.
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Che's last special, Michael Che Matters, felt dated because it was filmed before the pandemic, but after watching this special, I realize that wasn't the problem with that special, because this special was done this year, in front of a fully vaccinated and masked audience, but it wasn't nearly funny. Though I have to admit when Che explained why he doesn't trust the effectiveness of the vaccine, I fell off my chair laughing in total agreement and though it was the funniest thing he said in this show.
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This special was shot in Oakland, California and Che makes a big point out of letting this audience know that Oakland is one of the most unique cities in the country and that he really wanted to do this special in Oakland for some reason, though that reason is never really brought into light. After admitting to pandering to his audience, he then goes into this diatribe about San Francisco, that I really didn't understand, but this audience found absolutely hysterical.
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Even though the material broached here felt more contemporary, Che's heart didn't really seem to be in it. After his cheer-inducing remarks about the vaccine, he did go into a bit about the connection, or lack thereof, between blacks and American patriotism. I cracked up when he said if Black Americans had their own flag, it would only have about 11 stars. His talk about the lack of strong black leadership just felt like more pandering, as did his sharing what it would be like if men had periods instead of women.
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One piece that I did find surprisingly refreshing was when he talked about the state of blacks and the area of mental health and how far the race has come being judged fairly regarding mental health. This was one of those topics that until I heard a comic actually verbalize it, that I realized he was absolutely correct and this was easily the strongest part of the concert..."two slaves are standing in the cottonfield and one says to the other 'you look down man'". Che backslides a little in his attempt to become the next Dave Chappelle, but there are laughs to be found here. 3

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Pinocchio (1940)
Disney had one of his biggest hits with the 1940 morality tale Pinocchio, a colorful and splashy animated adventure that actually contains underlying themes like a lot of the early Disney classics, but the intended demographic was oblivious to any of these themes.
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Gepetto is a wood carver who lives with a cat and a fish and can make anything out of wood...clocks, dolls, toys, and is presently in the middle of making a marionette called Pinocchio. Gepetto finishes Pinocchio and goes to bed, making a wish that the puppet was a real boy. Right on cue, the Blue Fairy shows up, brings Pinocchio to life, and gives little Jiminy Cricket the job of being Pinocchio's conscience, a job that Jiminy isn't quite up to as Pinocchio finds himself in one jam after another after being brought to life.
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As always with the Disney classics, Walt Disney has managed to mount an imaginative fairy tale rich with colorful characters that offers a lot of important messages to children without them realizing it. We are given an important message about the value of education from jump as none of what happens to the title character in this movie would have happened if he had gone straight to school.
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Pinocchio's adventures also offers the kids lessons about greed, show business, ego, and best of all, lying. Not only does Pinocchio's nose grow every time he tells the Blue Fairy a lie, but the nose begins growing branches, sprouting blooms, and even a small nest of birds, getting just as elaborate as his lies. The scenes of his attempt at a career on the stage where he is exploited and kept prisoner by Stromboli reminded me of Bytes' exploitation of John Merrick in The Elephant Man.
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The movie is colorful and exciting with terrific voice work, especially from Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards, stealing every moment he had onscreen as Jiminy Cricket, especially his rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star", which won the Oscar for Best Song of 1940. Anyway you slice it, another classic from mad genius Walt Disney. Remade as a live action feature in 2019. 4.5

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Friendsgiving
An attempt to offer us something new in the way of holiday movie viewing, we have been rewarded with 2020's Friendsgiving, a pointless and tiresome holiday comedy that apparently is supposed to look at the power of friendship, but essentially offers sporadic laughs regarding California lifestyle and the ever fluid and ever changing rules regarding sexuality.
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Malin Ackerman plays Molly, an actress and divorced single mother who has planned to spend a quiet Thanksgiving with her ex-girlfriend Abby (Kat Dennings), but those plans go by the wayside as Molly's guest list expands including her current boyfriend Jeff (Jack Donnelly), her ex-husband, Gunnar (Ryan Hansen), her married gal pal Lauren (Aisha Tyler), her husband (Deon Cole); three possible fix-ups for Abby and Molly's sexually uninhibited mother (Jane Seymour).
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This comedy is the brainchild of Nicole Paone, whose experience as a writer is limited to documentary short subjects and this film is her debut as a director. Her inexperience as a director is apparent, but the screenplay is a lot more troubling than the direction. The film starts out pretty promisingly with the story of Molly, her new boyfriend, and her old girlfriend, but once all these other characters get thrown into the mix, interest really starts to wane.
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The film has Ackerman and Ben Stiller billed as producers and Stiller seems to have gotten his money by providing a role for is wife, Christine Taylor, as a party guest whose jaw is wired shut and we're never told why. There are some funny pokes at New Millenium eating habits as all of the side dishes come out of the oven and have to be labeled "vegan", "organic", or "delicious" , but Tyler's trip on mushrooms and Kat's mushroom-influenced visit from the "Fairy Gaymothers" was where the film began to lose me.
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Paone displays the beginnings of a directorial eye here, but she needs to find better material. An "A" list cast might have helped here as well, but I will say that Dennings and Donnelly steal every scene they're in, though their work isn't even enough to complete engage the viewer in this mess of a movie. 2

[Citizen Rules]

Friendsgiving
rating_2That looks like a painfully bad movie. What made you decide to watch it?

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Just sort of ran into it accidentally and I like some of the actors in it, but yeah, it was pretty bad.

[Citizen Rules]

Just sort of ran into it accidentally and I like some of the actors in it, but yeah, it was pretty bad.Yeah, I do that too, watch movies just because a favorite actor is in it.

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Caged (1950)
Warner Brother struck gold with a gritty look inside a women's prison called Caged, which works thanks to intense direction, a clever, fact-based screenplay, and some sizzling performances.
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The 1950 film stars Eleanor Parker as Marie Allen, a pregnant, 19-year old widow who has been sentenced to 1-15 years for being an accomplice in an armed robbery. She initially finds sympathy from the prison warden Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorhead), but makes an instant enemy out of Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson), the vicious and menacing prison matron who really runs the place, thanks to arrangements she's made with inmates and protection she receives from big shots on the outside. Marie manages to survive until her first parole hearing. Her parole is denied and Marie slowly begins morphing into a hardened prisoner who learns how to take care of herself.
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The screenplay for this film was co-written by Virginia Kellogg and Bernard C Schoenfield, based on a magazine article Kellogg wrote. In order to research her screenplay, Kellogg actually arranged to be placed in a women's prison for the sake of accuracy of her article. She seems to have gotten what she wanted because the atmosphere established in this film is dark and hopeless, a lot more depressing than a lot of films I've seen that take place in men's prisons. I loved the way the inmates referred to life outside the prison as "the freeside." There was actually a scene here involving a woman who swears she didn't belong here that reminded me a lot of a scene in The Shawshank Redemption where the prisoner pretty much met an identical fate.
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The most interesting parts of the story were Marie's transition and the cat and mouse between Ruth and Evelyn. Marie is a frightened teenager at the beginning of the film who is heartbroken at the thought of taking off her wedding ring and at the end of the film when she's released, she's throws the ring in the trash. Her first real defiance of Evelyn over a lost kitten seemed kind of silly though...pick your battles, Marie. And even though Ruth is the warden, it seems that Evelyn is the one with the power. When Ruth threatens to fire her, Evelyn laughs in her face.
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It should also be mentioned that Evelyn Harper is one of the movie characters featured in The Celluloid Closet, a character who is probably lesbian but is either in denial about it or the script doesn't come right out and say it. Watch that first scene where Evelyn invites Marie into her quarters and offers her all kinds of perks if she's "cooperative".
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Eleanor Parker's rich, full-bodied performance as Marie earned her the first of her three Oscar nominations for lead actress and Emerson's Evelyn earned her a richly deserved supporting actress nomination. Agnes Moorhead, in the most sympathetic role I have ever seen her in, is superb as the warden, a performance just as Oscar-worthy as Parker and Emerson's. A very young Ellen Corby also steals every scene she's in as Emma, an inmate for whom prison is a revolving door. John Cromwell's direction is taut and Max Steiner's music is perfection. An underrated drama from the 50's well worth your time. 4

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Juwanna Man
2002's Juwanna Man is a dumb and unbelievably predictable comedy
that worked much better when it was called Tootsie.
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Jamal Jefferies is a cocky professional basketball superstar who gets kicked out of the NBA after his on court antics get out of hand. With no other options, he decides to disguise himself as a woman named Juwana Mann and join a woman's pro basketball team called the Carolina Banshees, which, of course, leads to all kinds of complications, primarily his attraction to Michelle, the captain of the team.
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Screenwriter Bradley Allen, who also wrote the dreadful Who's Your Caddy? should have just given the screenwriters of Tootsie some kind off onscreen credit for this story. Other than the fact that this film takes place in the world of professional sports instead of the world of daytime television, t6he stories are pretty much identical. Michelle even has a cheating boyfriend, just like the Dabney Coleman character in Tootsie, who was cheating on Jessica Lange with Geena Davis.
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The story stretches credibility to the nth degree as there are too many situations that occur where Jamal should have been caught and the story sheepishly protects the character in order to give us a feature length film. Somehow the guy never has to take a shower with his female teammates and when he has to take physical required by the team, he sneaks out of the office in a giant chicken suit and escapes and it is never addressed. It's just lazy writing, though I did like the scene where Jamal's ruse comes to light, but by then, we've already been through too much stuff that was hard to believe.
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The casting of Miguel A Nunez in the title role didn't really help either. This actor has been in the business since the mid 1980's, but mostly as a supporting actor and there's a reason for that, which comes shining through here. Nunez doesn't have the chops to carry a film and, honestly, I suspect the main reason he got this role is because he's tall and looked like a basketball player. Must admit how different this film might have been if somebody like Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, or Chris Tucker had played Jamal.
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The supporting cast is nothing special, with the exceptions of Kevin Pollak as Jamal's agent and Tommy Davidson as a rapper named Puff Smokey Smoke who falls hard for Juwanna. In a nutshell, 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back. 1.5

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Dean Martin: King of Cool
Steve McQueen was always the first star whose image popped into my head when I thought of the Hollywood manifestation of "cool", but I may have to rethink that after watching a funny and compelling documentary called Dean Martin: King of Cool, a riveting look at one of Hollywood's most fascinating and misunderstood icons.
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The 2021 documentary lovingly documents Martin's career from his childhood in Steubenville, Ohio, to his tragic death on Christmas day of 1995. As scenes from his life rolled over us, two recurring themes about the man come to the forefront. One, was that this was a guy who no one really knew and that was no accident. We also learn that he was not the party animal many believed he was because of the people he associated with. The director asks half a dozen people a question about Martin that just drew blank expressions from most of them. Only Martin's daughter, Deana, comes up with an answer at the end of the film.
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I was delighted when during an early interview, Martin is asked what his biggest show business break was and his reply was Jerry Lewis. We all know the stories, but this documentary reminds us that there was just as many good times as bad, including their 1976 reunion at Jerry's MDA telethon.
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Also pleased to learn that a lot of Martin's image as a hard-drinking party animal was just that...an image that was made to look all the more convincing because of his time with the Rat Pack. Sinatra did not lead the guy around by the nose and was often left to party by himself while Dean went home and went to bed. There is a terrific story shared by Bob Newhart, who appeared 24 times on Martin's NBC variety show, about a party at Martin's house where he found Martin in his bedroom watching The Andy Griffith Show.
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Commentary is offered along the way by Alec Baldwin, Jon Hamm, Peter Bogdanovich, Carol Burnett, Angie Dickinson, Florence Henderson, Lainie Kazan, Oscar winner Barry Levinson, Emmy winner George Schlatter, Tony winner Tommy Tune, who was the assistant choreographer on Martin's NBC variety show and two rarely scene Hollywood offspring: Todd Fisher, the son of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and Billy Hinsche, childhood pal of Dino Martin Jr, who was the "Billy" in a short lived musical act called Dino, Desi, and Billy. In terms of presentation, this documentary is definitely "no frills" but the subject is so fascinating you just don't care. 4

[xSookieStackhouse]

Pinocchio (1940)
Disney had one of his biggest hits with the 1940 morality tale Pinocchio, a colorful and splashy animated adventure that actually contains underlying themes like a lot of the early Disney classics, but the intended demographic was oblivious to any of these themes.
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Gepetto is a wood carver who lives with a cat and a fish and can make anything out of wood...clocks, dolls, toys, and is presently in the middle of making a marionette called Pinocchio. Gepetto finishes Pinocchio and goes to bed, making a wish that the puppet was a real boy. Right on cue, the Blue Fairy shows up, brings Pinocchio to life, and gives little Jiminy Cricket the job of being Pinocchio's conscience, a job that Jiminy isn't quite up to as Pinocchio finds himself in one jam after another after being brought to life.
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As always with the Disney classics, Walt Disney has managed to mount an imaginative fairy tale rich with colorful characters that offers a lot of important messages to children without them realizing it. We are given an important message about the value of education from jump as none of what happens to the title character in this movie would have happened if he had gone straight to school.
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Pinocchio's adventures also offers the kids lessons about greed, show business, ego, and best of all, lying. Not only does Pinocchio's nose grow every time he tells the Blue Fairy a lie, but the nose begins growing branches, sprouting blooms, and even a small nest of birds, getting just as elaborate as his lies. The scenes of his attempt at a career on the stage where he is exploited and kept prisoner by Stromboli reminded me of Bytes' exploitation of John Merrick in The Elephant Man.
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The movie is colorful and exciting with terrific voice work, especially from Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards, stealing every moment he had onscreen as Jiminy Cricket, especially his rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star", which won the Oscar for Best Song of 1940. Anyway you slice it, another classic from mad genius Walt Disney. Remade as a live action feature in 2019. 4.5

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
The recent passing of legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim motivated my first viewing of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the manic and fast-paced 1966 film version of the Broadway musical that was Sondheim's first work as both composer and lyricist.
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Zero Mostel was allowed to recreate his Broadway role as Pseudolus, a lazy, but fast thinking slave in ancient Rome who longs for nothing more than being freed of slavery. His young master, Hero, agrees to grant Pseudolus his freedom if he can procure a young courtesan named Philia as his bride. Unfortunately, Pseudolus' mission is complicated by the other houses of their neighborhood, including the house where the courtesans live.
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The musical upon which this film was based opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for over 900 performances, so it was no surprise that a film version was rushed to the screen, but this screen version is but a shell of the original musical, which I have seen and am in possession of the Broadway soundtrack. Sondheim's score has been severely tampered with here, deleting eight songs from the original score, though we still have "Comedy Tonight", "Lovely", "Bring Me My Bride" and the show stopping "Everybody Ought to Have e Maid". There are about four songs from the original score that this reviewer sorely missed because they help to flesh out some of the characters, especially a number Pseudolus has called "Free." Ironically, the film received its only Oscar for Best Music Scoring.
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A few years after his triumph directing A Hard Day's Night, Richard Lester does manage to bring the same over the top pacing to this sometimes confusing story, where it's often hard to tell the difference between the slaves and masters. Fortunately, with the aid of film editor and future director Nicholas Roeg, Lester has provided us with enough chariot races, half-naked chorus girls, comic icons in drag and soldiers who can't tell they're men that we almost forgive the confusion. LOVED the "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" number...a brilliant collaboration between choreographer, editor, and director. On the the other hand, I wish a little more care had been taken in the dubbing of Milos Gloriosus' singing voice, not to mention the fact the stuntman who subs for Mostel in the final chase scene is about 100 pounds lighter than Mostel.
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On the positive, Mostel lights up the screen as Pseudolus. This guy was no singer, but few actors know how to sell a song like Mostel. Phil Silvers and Jack Gilford are hysterical as Lycus and Hysterium and Michael Crawford brings the same goofiness to Hero that he did to Cornelius Hackl a few years later in Hello Dolly! This movie also features the final film appearance of silent screen legend Buster Keaton, a sad swan song in a thankless role. There is entertainment here, but this reviewer wouldn't mind seeing this musical mounted with the full score. 3.5

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Last Night in Soho
The creative force behind Shaun of the Dead scores with an unrelenting cinematic nightmare called Last Night in Soho that effectively blends mystery and violence for about two thirds of the running time, when a lot of the questions posed are answered all at once, leading to a somewhat convenient ending, but we want to see how it plays out anyway.
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The 2021 film is about a young woman named Ellie who moves to London to attend a fashion design school. When she finds herself unhappy at the dorm, Ellie decides to move into a boarding house and one night goes to bed and finds herself transported back in time to 1960's London, a time period that has always fascinated Ellie. She instantly encounters a glamorous nightclub singer and prostitute named Sandie and a cosmic connection to Sandie is implied as Ellie becomes Sandie's reflection. As it might initially appear, a story hinged on the supernatural appears to be something darker yet simpler.
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Director and screenwriter Edgar Knight has put a lot of detail and imagination into the mounting of this gothic nightmare that starts off with a quiet simplicity that easily disguises the cinematic explosion coming. The slightly overdetailed exposition which finds outsider Ellie dealing with a kind of Mean Girls/Carrie situation, finding her an outsider at fashion school and we're actually happy that she has possibly time traveled and just as we've accept this premise, we are brought back to the present to show that this story is not the complete fantasy we initially think it is.
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Wright does a splendid job of reproducing all aspects of 1960's London, which is the primary canvas for this story. I love the first shot of 1960's London which finds Ellie stepping out of what appears to be a giant theater marquee advertising the James Bond film Thunderball. Wright also utilizes 1960's music as an important tool in establishing mood and advancing story with original recordings and covers of 60's classics like Petula Clark's "Downtown" and Dionne Warwick's "Anyone who had a Heart."
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The answers all come flooding out at the beginning of the final third, right before this reviewer figured out what was going on. Wright established an interesting cast to realize his nightmare. Thomasin McKenzie brings a real Jennifer Jason Leigh quality to Ellie and Anya Taylor-Joy, Golden Globe winner for The Queen's Gambit is hauntingly ethereal as Sandie. And to give it authentic 60's cinematic flavor, 60's actors Terrence Stamp and the long absent from the screen Rita Tushingham appear in supporting roles, as does, in her final feature film appearance, Dame Diana Rigg, nearly unrecognizable in a dazzling performance as Mrs. Collins. It takes a minute to get going and wraps up a little too quickly, but this reviewer was riveted to the screen. 4

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Best Foot Forward
MGM found middling success with their film adaptation of the Broadway musical Best Foot Forward, which features some offbeat casting and some nice musical highlights from the composers of Meet Me in St Louis, but never comes together as a complete cinematic experience. Unfortunately, for the studio who reigned Hollywood in making musicals at the time, this was a bit of a disappointment.
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The 1943 film takes place at a military academy called Winsocki where a young cadet named Bud Hooper who has planned to take his girlfriend, Helen, to the senior prom, but tells her he can't take her because he's sick. It turns out that Bud wrote a fan letter to movie star Lucille Ball asking her to go the prom with him. He is shocked when Ball agrees to attend the ball with Bud because her agent thinks it would be good publicity for her. Of course, things get tangled when Bud tells Ball that she has to pretend to be Helen and Helen shows up to nurse Bud back to health.
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The film is based on a Broadway musical that opened on Broadway on October 1, 1941 and ran for an unimpressive 326 performances. Someone at MGM must have seen the entertainment value here since it reached the screen so quickly after its arrival on Broadway. My suspicion is that this vehicle was purchased by MGM and revamped to suit the talents of Ball, who they were really pushing at the time. Ball had done some solid work in supporting roles up to this point, but nothing as the lead. However, with this film and DuBarry was a Lady, Ball was given two ample opportunities to be a musical leading lady and neither really worked. Eventually, the actress did find success on television.
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The film does feature some terrific musical numbers, competently staged by Charles Walters. I liked the opening "Wish I May Wish I Might", "Three Men on a Date", "The Three B's", and the finale "Buckle Down Winsocki". Harry James and his orchestra are also allowed to kill some screentime with three numbers, including James actually putting his trumpet down to perform a dance duet with Nancy Walker, which he appeared truly uncomfortable with.
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Ball works hard at playing herself, much harder than should have been necessary. Gloria DeHaven and June Allyson also make the most of thankless roles and Tommy Dix tries really hard as Bud. It's actually Nancy Walker, who steals the show here as the blind date of a young cadet who rejects her upon his arrival but decides to find romance at the dance anyway. For hardcore Ball fans only. 2.5

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Clifford the Big Red Dog
Paramount brings a classic literary character to the screen with 2021's Clifford the Big Red Dog, a big budget rendering of the title character that starts out beautifully projecting some nice themes, but grows a little more tiresome during the second half of the film.
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A lonely little girl named Emily and her unemployed, homeless Uncle Casey enter an animal rescue shelter run by a Mr. Bridwell. Emily falls in love with a tiny red puppy but Casey says no. Of course, Bridwell manages to sneak the puppy into her backpack and Emily is overjoyed when she finds the puppy when she gets home. Of course, she is shocked when she wakes up and the puppy is ten feet tall and is about the size of an elephant. Inside, he's still a puppy.
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Clifford is the central character in a scholastic book series named after the character and became an animated series on PBS in the year 2000. This reviewer has not read any of these books or seen the series, so this was my first exposure to the character. I thought I was in for something very special when Emily asks Bridwell how big Clifford gets and he replies that it depends on how much Emily loves him. It should be mentioned that the Bridwell character is named after the author of the books.
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I absolutely loved the way the film opened...we see Clifford's mom and siblings taken away to a pound and we also learn that Clifford's mom and siblings are a normal dog color. Not sure why, but for some reason I thought a big plot point here was going to be learning why Clifford was red, but we never got an answer to that question, which nagged at me throughout, but I guess it's just supposed to be a message about tolerance.
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Every minute of the film before Clifford turns big is adorable...the sight of him scratching on that warehouse door trying to get out after being left there almost ignited the tear ducts. Also loved the fact that Clifford seemed to understand English perfectly...love the scene where Emily is trying to name the puppy. But after he gets big, everything that happens to him is so predictable, including the half-crazed villain (nicely played by Tony Hale) who wants to use Clifford for his own purposes.
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Production values are spot on, especially the technical team who created Clifford...those beautiful soulful eyes are irresistible. Darby Kemp does bring an intelligence to Emily we don't see coming and Jack Whitehall definitely garners laughs as Uncle Casey. Other familiar faces pop up including David Alan Grier, Paul Rodriguez, Rosie Perez, Tovah Feldshuh, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and John Cleese as Bridwell, but the film eventually drowns in syrupy sentimentality. 2.5

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The Santa Clause
Disney poured big bucks into their lavish Christmas fantasy from 1994, The Santa Clause, an often overly sentimental Christmas confection that takes Miracle on 34th Street and crosses it with Evan Almighty in tackling a universal holiday discussion...when did you stop believing in Santa Claus?
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During his hiatus from season 4 of Home Improvement, Tim Allen was pegged for his second feature film appearance to play Scott Calvin. Scott is a divorced toy manufacturer with a young son who is not happy when he learns his ex-wife and her psychiatrist husband decide that Scott's son, Charlie, is old enough to learn there is no such thing as Santa Claus. While spending Christmas Eve with Charlie, Scott hears something on the roof and discovers Santa falling off the roof and apparently dying. Scott finds a note on the body saying to put on the suit and the reindeer will handle the rest. After delivering the toys, Scott is obviously thrown when he learns he is going to be the new Santa.
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The screenplay for this elaborate comedy is by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, who would later collaborate on Space Jam: A New Legacy, but obviously found its roots in the classic Miracle on 34th Street as a little boy gets his faith in Santa renewed in one night but Dad's not sure. Charlie's arrival at the North Pole is beautifully mounted, despite his annoying greeting by head elf Bernard, who had all the answers to what was going on but Charlie had to drag the answers out of him.
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The part of the movie that was the most amusing was the physical transformation of Scott into Santa and anyone who has seen Evan Almighty will recognize this part of the story. As funny as it was when Scott started gaining weight and obtained a beard he couldn't shave off, it was stretching credibility that the other characters in the movie were either accepting Scott's lame explanations or just pretending not to see what was going on right in front of their eyes.
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Director John Pasquin, who was a director on Home Improvement, does get a terrific performance out of Allen and mounts the film with solid production values, with a shout out to visual effects. Judge Reinhold, in a refreshing change of pace, is the villain of the piece, Charlie's new stepfather and young Eric Lloyd is adorable as Charlie. Despite some logistical and credibility issues, Disney has delivered a pretty smooth holiday ride here. Followed by two sequels. 3.5

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Red Notice
The screenplay is very talky, making the film seem five hours long, but 2021's Red Notice is still a high octane action adventure worth a look thanks to engaging performances from the leads and solid production values.
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Apparently, there are three very valuable pieces of art called the Eggs of Cleopatra and some rich sultan somewhere wants to make a gift of them to his daughter. Dwayne Johnson plays an FBI agent named Hartley, who is certain that a top art thief named Booth (Ryan Reynolds) is about to steal one of the eggs. Booth does so, but during the process, Hartley is framed for the theft of the second egg by a thief named The Bishop (Gal Gadot). Hartley and Booth must team up to get the third egg before The Bishop does.
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This overblown action epic was written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, whose previous credits include Skyscraper and Easy A, who has seemingly found a way to combine elements from both of these films, but only with middling results. Thurber does possess knowledge of how to mount an action sequence, which he already proved in Skyscraper, though a lot of times here he doesn't provide the payoff that he sets up. There's a part of the story that finds Johnson and Reynolds escaping from a maximum security prison in Russia, built practically in the sky above massive, snow-covered mountains. As the leads execute their escape, we watch with bated breath for one bad guy to fall off this mountain precipice, but it never happened. Why set up this deadly setting and not have a single death occur?
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As for Easy A, a movie filled with rich and funny dialogue, Thurber has chosen to really slow down the pacing of this already overlong film by having Johnson and Reynolds share boring monologues about their fathers meant to establish a connection between the characters, but all it really does is slow the film to a point where I found myself stifling the occasional yawn. Not to mention the fact that we're told that Reynolds' character knows where the third egg is but won't tell anybody where it is until the final third of the film.
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Every penny of the budget is on the screen, with special shout-outs to cinematography, editing, and art direction, but this film eventually drowns in pretension and intensions it never really lives up to. Even the double twist ending doesn't help. Oh, and there's a sequel coming, which Thurber takes almost ten minutes to set up. 2.5

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The Wedding Date
From the Pretty Woman school of filmmaking comes 2005's The Wedding Date a handsomely mounted romantic comedy that doesn't offer a lot in terms of imagination, but is worth a look thanks to the smooth chemistry between the leads.
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Debra Messing plays Kat Ellis, a workaholic upwardly mobile who has to fly to London for her sister's wedding where her ex-fiancee is going to be the best man. In order to make him jealous, Kat hires a sexy professional escort named Nick (Dermot Mulroney) to go the wedding with her playing her boyfriend, for the bargain price of $6000. Upon arrival in London, Nick plays his role perfectly, but there's a whole lot going on with this wedding that neither he nor Kat know about.
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Dana Fox's screenplay, based on a book called Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young, is overly cutesy at times, but crafts a story with rich characters who have equally rich backstories without actually having to have them play out in front of us, keeping the running time economic.
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One of my favorite things about the story is that Nick is the smartest character in the movie. It's clear that he has been doing what he does for a long time and knows how to play his role with just enough tweaks to fit the situation. I love his opening dialogue where he is trying to calm Kat's fears about this thing and his handling of Kat's family is perfection, especially her father. Nick is the only central character who never makes a wrong move, unlike Vivian in Pretty Woman. He does his job so well that he confesses to the groom at one point that he is a prostitute and the guy just laughs in disbelief.
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The London scenery is lovely and so is Messing in the role of Kat. Mulroney is slick and understated as Nick and Amy Adams, as always, brings a substance to her role as Kat's sister that's not in the screenplay. There are also scene-stealing turns from Holland Taylor as Kat and Amy's mother and Sarah Parrish as Kat's trampy gal pal, TJ. If I had one technical quibble, there was an issue with the audio that made it hard to hear what was being said during some crucial scenes, but other than that, a pleasant picture postcard romance. 3.5

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The Hating Game
There's an air of predictability to it, but 2021's The Hating Game is a stylishly written and directed romantic comedy with a strong contemporary slant that provides just enough twists and turns to keep it from drowning in it's initial predictability.
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Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman work as assistants to the co-CEOS of a Manhattan publishing firm in a large office across the room from each other. On the surface, Josh and Lucy can't stand each other but the sexual tension beneath the surface is viable and obvious. The gloves appear to come off when Josh and Lucy decide to compete for a newly created management position within the firm, but we get the opposite as a lot of tension between Josh and Lucy begins to be addressed through multiple storytelling techniques.
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Christina Mengert's screenplay, based on a novel by Sally Thorne, is smart and sexy and establishes almost immediately the sexual tension between the leads providing surprisingly little backstory. The setting is backstory enough...two people who have worked across the room from each other for years, sparks are bound to fly at some point, but the wall between Josh and Lucy melts slowly, it's not just knocked down in one climactic sex scene where they are trapped together, like the scene near the beginning where Josh strands them in an elevator and then stops things before they start.
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It's established immediately that Josh is an uptight obsessive compulsive who dresses for work in schedules and keeps his desk immaculate. Normally, in stories like this, it is the girl who is established this way and I found this so refreshing. Loved the methodical melting of the Josh character where several of the aforementioned surprises come up and provide understanding of the character,
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Peter Hutchings' direction includes some clever camerawork and the great work from his cast. Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell heat up the screen as Lucy and Josh. Also loved Corbin Bernsen as Josh's sexist boss, Damon Duanno as Lucy's co-worker, and Sean Cullen as Josh's insensitive dad. It's no When Harry Met Sally, but a lot better than I thought it was going to be. 3.5

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A Cry in the Dark
A chilling, Oscar-nominated performance from Meryl Streep is the centerpiece of 1988's A Cry in the Dark, a hellish and squirm-worthy docudrama that tells a true story of how the media and mob sensibility can affect true justice and destroy a family
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Streep plays Lindy Chamberlain, the wife of a minister (Sam Neill) and mother of three children. Her family is camping in the Australian outback when, during an attack of wild dingos, Lindy's baby daughter, Azaria, appears to have been carried away by one of the dogs. An investigation turns up the baby's bloody clothes, but forensics reveal that there is no evidence of a dog handling the clothes and it's not long before Lindy is suspected of murdering her baby.
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Director Fred Schepisi (Six Degrees of Separation, Roxanne) does a masterful job of establishing a very close-knit community on the other side of the globe who come together instantly when word spreads of the Chamberlain's tragedy spreads, but are torn apart with equal aplomb as forensics, the media, and vicious gossip that turns to an almost mob sensibility that demands Lindy's head on a platter.
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What's even more frightening is Lindy's reaction to what is happening and how she reacts to it. Michael has clearly been destroyed by this, but Lindy embraces the spotlight in an uncomfortable manner that actually has us wondering what is exactly going on here. We see her do television interviews with relish, always sunglasses to shield her real emotions and found it disturbing that not long after the death of Azaria, she gets pregnant and has another daughter. Lindy's actions through this horror do not spell grief and have the viewer wondering exactly what's wrong with this woman.
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Streep's stunning performance earned the film its only Oscar nomination, but I think Neill and Schepisi do Oscar-worthy work here too, A harrowing motion picture experience made all the more harrowing because it really happened. 4

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The Humans
It's a little squirm-worthy and requires complete attention that pays off somewhat, but 2021's The Humans is a voyeuristic look at a family celebrating Thanksgiving that is unlike any holiday movie this reviewer has seen and but was riveted for most of the proceedings.
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It's Thanksgiving Day and the setting is one of those large pre-war duplexes in Manhattan. Brigid and her boyfriend, Rich, have just moved into this duplex, devoid of furniture, except for the two bridge tables they plan to serve Thanksgiving dinner on. The other guests are Brigid's parents, Erik and Deirdre, Brigid's older sister, Aimee, and Erik's mother, confined to a wheelchair and suffering from dementia.
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This film is based on a play by Stephen Karam that opened on Broadway in February of 2016 and ran about a year. When it came time to bring it to the screen, Karam was not only allowed to adopt his play into a screenplay but to direct as well. This is obvious because Karam was clearly given free reign here and definitely gets a little full of himself.
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I love that the screenplay takes a lot of time providing backstory for these family members. We are well into the final third of the film before we learn one character is a lesbian, one used to suffer from severe depression, one is a musician, one is an adulterer, two have been fired from their jobs, and one is going to inherit a huge amount of money in five years.
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This is plenty material for a family dysfunction drama but Karam spends way too much time setting the film to look like a horror film and then showing us, in agonizing detail, this decaying building, not to mention interruptions from an upstairs neighbor which never come to any real fruition. Karam should have spent more time at this deliciously dysfunctional family's Thanksgiving bridge table, drinking out of Dixie cups. It's Thanksgiving with Woody Allen and Edward Albee.
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The small ensemble cast works beautifully together. Jayne Houdyshell, who I recognized as a judge on Law and Order: SVU, is allowed to repeat her Tony Award winning role as Deirdre and Richard Jenkins is wonderful, as always, as her slightly pathetic husband, Erik. Beanie Feldstein, who stole every scene she had in Lady Bird is terrific as Brigid, as is Best Actor nominee from last year Stephen Yeun (Minari) as Rich. And for the first time, Amy Schumer was not completely annoying onscreen as Aimee. This could have been incredible if the director/screenwriter hadn't gotten a little full of himself. 3.5

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Diamond Horseshoe
20th Century Fox produced one of their best musicals with 1945's Diamond Horseshoe, a splashy and surprisingly entertaining backstage musical that provides solid entertainment for most of its running time, thanks to first rate production values, a very hummable score, and one of their biggest stars center stage.
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Joe Davis, Jr. (Dick Haymes) has dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in show business. He arrives backstage at the title establishment where his dad (William Gaxton) is one of the stars. Dad tries to discourage Joe but does get him a job as the assistant stage manager at the Horseshoe. Joe falls hard for the female star, Bonnie Collins (Betty Grable), initially resisting because she doesn't get along with Joe's dad at all. Dad's girlfriend, Claire (Beatrice Kay) is not happy with the time that Joe Sr is spending with his son and offers Bonnie her mink coat if she will get Joe to fall in love with her.
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Director and co-screenwriter George Seaton has crafted a classic backstage story that features everything you expect from a backstage musical, including a funny running gag where the show's stage manager (Phil Silvers) finds himself trying to get to the truth behind the old saying "The show must go on." What we have here in terms of story could have trimmed a little bit due to its lack of originality, but we find ourselves engaged in the travails of Joe and Bonnie and want them together.
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The musical numbers are an effective combination of elaborate production numbers like "Welcome to the Diamond Horseshow", where the chorus girls are all dressed as food and condiments and Dick Haymes' dreamy rendition of the film's most famous song "The More I See You". A production featuring Grable, Gaxton, and Kaye called "The Old and the New" and a torchy version of "I Wish I Knew" by Grable are also well worth your time. A guest appearance by pianist Carmen Cavallaro is strangely placed near the end of the film and kind of slows things up when they should be wrapping up.
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Grable and her million dollar legs light up the screen as always. One character says to her "If you ever put on a long dress your career will be over." Haymes is no actor, but I could listen to him sing all day and Beatrice Kay steals every scene she's in Claire. 20th Century Fox was not really known for musicals, but this one was definitely one of their best. 3.5

[Citizen Rules]

I've not even heard of Diamond Horseshoe before, must be a more lesser known of Betty Grable's musicals.

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Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It
With the general release of Spielberg's remake of West Side Story, less than a week away, I felt it was important to view a joyous, intimate, and unabashedly candid look at a Hollywood legend, who a few days ago celebrated her 90th birthday. The first Latina EGOT winner, the incredible Rita Moreno, is profiled in a PBS documentary called Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It.
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The 2021 documentary follows the accustomed path of most documentaries, but the star's past is revealed to us through contemporary settings. The star's dirt poor childhood is effectively juxtaposed with scenes of her as Anita in West Side Story, which, like the character Anita, lead to Moreno leaving Puerto Rico for America. Loved the story the star shares of her first meeting with Louis B Mayer at the Waldorf, which led to her first contract at MGM, because Mayer thought she looked like Liz Taylor.
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There is a look at Rita's extensive cinematic resume, where often it was hard to tell one role from another and Moreno definitely feels the same way. Her years of playing exotic island girls who barely spoke English frustrated her to no end. I was fascinated to learn that as much as she loved appearing in Singin in the Rain, she found her role as Tuptim in The King & I to be boring. Rita doesn't hold back regarding her history with sexual harassment either.
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There is a nice amount of screen time devoted to Moreno's long and turbulent relationship with the legendary Marlon Brando, where a few things about the relationship turned out to be news to me. She refers to him as "the Daddy I couldn't please". It's implied that the demons and toxicity of the relationship were worked out onscreen years later in the movie The Night of the Following Day. We also learned how the day of the 1962 Oscars, she and George Chakiris spent hours making up "loser" acceptance speeches because they felt they had no chance at winning. Moreno is known for delivering the shortest Oscar acceptance speech ever.
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Commentary is provided along the way by Chakiris, Whoopi Goldberg, Justina Machado, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Estefan, Chita Rivera, Mitzi Gaynor, Karen Olivo, who played Anita in the last Broadway revival of West Side Story, and Morgan Freeman, who-costarred with Moreno on The Electric Company, the PBS childrens' show that won Moreno a Grammy. We even get glimpse of Moreno on the set of the new West Side Story with Steven Spielberg. A fascinating documentary on a fascinating subject whose only real fault is that it wasn't long enough. 4.5

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Interrupted Melody
A dazzling performance by Eleanor Parker is the centerpiece of a lavish MGM musical biopic called Interrupted Melody that sacrifices biopic for melodrama but Parker's performance makes the melodrama work.
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This 1955 film is an alleged biography of an Australian opera singer named Marjorie Lawrence, following her studying voice in Paris to a spectacular career, which gets sidelined due to a romance with a handsome pediatrician named Tom King (Glenn Ford) and a bout with polio which puts the diva in a wheelchair.
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The Oscar-winning screenplay by Lawrence, William Ludwig, and Sonya Levien might be on the melodramatic side, but I love the fact that it doesn't present Lawrence in the most flattering light. Lawrence is portrayed here as an arrogant and self-absorbed prima donna who never doubts any move she makes. Her head is so swelled by the halfway point of the film that she expects Tom to put his medical practice on hold so that he can go on tour with her and Mr. Marjorie Lawrence.
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Though Lawrence is credited as a screenwriter, I still have to question the accuracy of the facts here. In this film, we learn in the opening scene that Lawrence has two brothers and a sister. An online search of Lawrence reveals that Lawrence was, in reality, one of six kids. And just like the Esther Williams film Dangerous When Wet, Marjorie and her family are supposed to be Australian, but none of the actors attempt an accent.
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Though the facts of Lawrence's life may have been glossed over in favor of melodrama, the melodrama works thanks to a true professional with the genre in the starring role. Parker absolutely commands the screen here in a performance that earned her a third Best Actress Oscar nomination. Grammy-winning soprano Eileen Farrell provides incredible vocals for Parker's competent lip synching. Farrell is allowed to shine with material from La Boheme, including a complete version of "Musetta's Waltz" and Salome, as well as songs like "Over the Rainbow" and "Waltzing Matilda".
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Ford is a solid leading man, who lets his leading lady do what she needs to do but never gets blown off the screen. There's also an appearance from a very young Roger Moore as Marjorie's younger brother and manager. Curtis Bernhardt's direction is a little static, but I loved the set direction and the Oscar nominated costumes. But in the tradition of Davis, Crawford, and Hepburn, Parker owns this film, makes it appointment viewing, and makes anything wrong with it irrelevant. 3.5

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tick, tick...BOOM!
The Tony-Award winning genius behind In the Heights and Hamilton knocks it out of the park with a spectacular debut as the director of a feature length film. tick, tick...BOOM! is an electric, intimate, and joyous musical rendering of the life of composer Jonathan Larson, the composer of the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical Rent, who died right before the show's opening at the tender age of 35. A spectacular musical fantasy that has earned a 2021 Golden Globe Nomination for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical.
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This 2021 film opens as we watch a 27-year old Jonathan (Andrew Garfield) on the brink of sanity as he is preparing for the workshop of a new musical set in outer space that he has spent eight years working on. Jonathan feels if he doesn't have a show on Broadway by the time he's 30, his career is over. His current headaches include not having money to hire the musicians he wants for the workshop and composing a song for the second act which is causing him a serious writer's block. As Jonathan slowly begins a meltdown, we watch him drive away the two closest people in his life: Susan, his girlfriend, is a former dancer who has been offered a job outside of Manhattan and wants Jonathan to leave New York with her and Michael, his gay BFF, a former actor who now works in advertising.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda was the perfect choice to bring this piece to the screen. Providing audience access to a piece with clearly limited appeal (theater lovers) was going to require a director with imagination, something Miranda is stupid with. The presentation of this story reminded me a lot of the Elton John biopic Rocketman, so if you liked that film, you will have a definite head start here. Jonathan's story is populated by a rich score that doesn't take the accustomed musical comedy paths. Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levinson (Dear Evan Hansen, Fosse/Verdon) have decided to use the score to flash out characters, advance story, or as in the case of the number "Therapy", musically reinterpret a scene without music. The story is musically narrated by Jonathan's band, whose lead female vocalist is played by Vanessa Hudgens.
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Just like Rent, Larson's glorious score is center stage here and keeps the viewer completely invested in the proceedings. Loved Jonathan and Michael's duet, "No More", the above mentioned "Therapy", Hudgens' ":Come To Your Senses", and the finale Louder than Words. But for this reviewer, the best musical number and best scene in the film, hands down, was "Sunday", a re-working of a song from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, set at a diner where Jonathan works, that features Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bernadette Peters, Andre DeShields, Bebe Nuewirth, original cast members from Rent and Hamilton, and the director.
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Judith Light is a lot of fun as Jonathan's manager, as is Bradley Whitford in a frighteningly accurate cameo as the late Stephen Sondheim. Andrew Garfield, who impressed me a few months ago playing Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, is equally dazzling here, and, yes, Garfield is doing his own singing. Also loved Robin DeJesus, who impressed at the beginning of this year in the remake of The Boys in the Band gives the performance of his career as Michael. Miranda's direction is exhausting in a good way, including some extremely smart camera work, providing the viewer with a musical journey that requires complete attention, rewarding the viewer in spades. Bouquets all around, especially to Lin-Manuel Miranda. 4.5

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The Muppet Christmas Carol
There have been dozens of versions of the classic Dickens novel brought to the screen over the last century or so, but Disney and Jim Henson Productions triumph with 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol because, despite the presence of the Muppets, this version does really find its heart where it should...in the original novel by Charles Dickens
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I've lost count as how many times this story has found its way to the big screen, but one thing most of them have tried to do is to give the story a more contemporary feel by updating dialogue and making it more accessible to contemporary moviegoers. Director Brian Henson and screenwriter Jerry Juhl know they automatically have given the story a modern flavor with the presence of the Muppets and they leave the rest of the story up to Charles Dickens himself.
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The Great Gonzo narrates the film claiming to be Charles Dickens, utilizing much of the original Dickens novel, giving the story such a rich feeling of authenticity, despite the presence of Muppets playing a lot of the characters. Gonzo is given Rizzo the Rat to assist with the narration, though it really isn't necessary. The rest of the Muppets that we know and love are cast in the story appropriately. The Muppets serve the story here instead of the story serving the Muppets, making this so much different than other offerings from the Muppet cinematic library.
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And the cherry on the cake here is an absolutely brilliant performance by two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge. Caine completely disappears inside this role, giving Scrooge a depth and heart that ranks up there with former movie Scrooges like Reginald Owen and George C. Scott. Even those he's working with puppets, Caine plays this role with a straight face and makes the transition that Scrooge goes through completely believable.
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The story has been enhanced by a bouncy musical score by Grammy and Oscar winner Paul Williams that includes "Room in Your Heart", "Bless Us All", "When Love is Gone", "Marley and Marley", and "Christmas Scat". Caine even gets to sing with a song called "Thankful Heart".
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The film features handsome production values, especially art direction and costumes.
Loved the costume for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Raymond Courtland and Steven Mackintosh made the most of their roles as Young Scrooge and Scrooge; nephew, Fred. Statler and Waldorf were a lot of fun as Marley's Ghosts and has there ever been a better Bob and Emily Cratchet than Kermit and Miss Piggy? For those looking for a new holiday movie tradition, this might be worth a look. 4

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King Richard
The screenplay could have used a little tightening, but 2021's King Richard is still a riveting and manipulative look at Richard Williams, the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, that is unapologetic for its portrayal of the central character in a very unflattering light.
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The film follows Richard's training of the girls on the public tennis courts of Compton through his manipulation of two professional tennis coaches into taking their training to a professional level, but never really getting out of these coaches' way so that they can do what Richard wants them to do.
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Zach Baylin's screenplay is overly detailed, taking a little too much time with exposition, but what it does do is present Richard Williams as an extremely flawed person, even if he doesn't think so. Williams is initially presented as a doting father of five girls who has a strong sense of family values, which seems to go out the window whenever he is trying to manipulate deals for Venus and Serena. A lot of early screentime is devoted to Richard's obsession that his girls be humble, but once he starts seeking professional coaching and negotiating deals, the character shows nothing but unabashed arrogance, especially his constant conflict with first coach Paul Cohen and the deal he broached with second coach Paul Macci, which he pretty much ignored after the elaborate deal he got out of Macci.
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As the film progressed, the Richard Williams character reminded me a lot of Rose in the musical Gypsy...strong and manipulative, running over everyone in his way like a steamroller, only hearing what he wanted to hear, as his role in Venus and Serena's lives makes him look more like a pimp than a parent. It was equally as sad to see Venus sit back and take it until she can't take it anymore. There's a terrific scene once the family starts working with Macci where Venus finally sees that her dad is standing in her way and decides t stand up for herself, but she does it unilaterally by approaching Paul, not her father. Sadly, it's the most direct step Venus takes, which is only a little more than her Venus' mother tries to do.
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What makes this film appointment viewing is the performance by Will Smith in the starring role, which has earned him a Golden Globe nomination and could earn the actor a third Oscar nomination for Best Actor. There was a time when I was certain that Will Smith was incapable of playing anyone but Will Smith. He showed promise in The Pursuit of Happynessand Seven Pounds, but he knocks it out of the park here, disappearing inside the most unsympathetic character he has ever played, detailed de-glamming of his pretty boy good looks only amplified the performance.
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There is also strong work by Aunjanue Ellis as Richard's wife and the girl's mother, which has earned her a Globe nominattion as well and by Jon Bernthal as Paul Macci. There is footage of the real people featured in the film, which verified the authenticity of the facts for me, but the facts became less relevant as I found my stomach being tied in knots by this beast Richard Williams. 4

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Blume in Love
From the creative force behind Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice comes an edgy and entertaining comedy-drama from 1973 called Blume in Love, which got a bump up my watchlist thanks to the recent passing of its leading man, offering one of his best performances.
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George Segal lights up the screen as Steven Blume, a divorce lawyer still feeling the pain from his divorce from the lovely Nina (Susan Anspach). Steven initially takes responsibility for why his marriage ended, but taking responsibility doesn't necessarily mean that he wants it to be over. He feigns remorse for the pain he put Nina through but that all changes when Nina becomes romantically involved with an unemployed musician and ex-con named Elmo (Kris Kristofferson).
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Director nd screenwriter Paul Mazursky proved with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice that he has never been shy about tackling stories centered around the ever changing sexual morality of the country and has the perfect canvas for this story. The 1970's were pre-HIV and a time when most sexual walls were being torn down and painted multiple shades of gray with a central character who was willing to embrace it all. Despite Steven's opening narration which declares Nina is the love of his life, he is observed in bed with his secretary and his ex-girlfriend about 25 minutes into the film. What we have here is a serial womanizer who doesn't know he's a serial womanizer. On the other hand, when given the opportunity to participate in sex romp with three other people, he runs for the hills.
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The story confusingly provides glances into Steven and Nina's courtship, their Italian honeymoon, and another visit to Italy after their divorce with attempts to win Nina back, an inability to deal with Elmo, which actually finds him bonding with Elmo, creating a truly conventional movie triangle that never really resolves anything and from which Steven learns nothing.
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What keeps the viewer invested in this bizarre love story is a wonderfully unhinged performance by George Segal in the starring role that keeps the character completely likable when he shouldn't be. He works well with Anspach's vulnerable Nina and Kristofferson's Elmo creating a triangle that often seems to be headed questionable places. There's also a wonderful supporting turn by Shelley Winters as a neurotic client of Blume's and by Mazursky as Steven's lawyer. The film is rich with extremely flawed characters who all make wrong moves, and though this Steven Blume is kind of a slimeball, I still found myself rooting for him. 3.5

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West Side Story (2021)
Disbelief and outrage were this reviewer's initial reaction to the news that Stephen Spielberg planned to do this, but after finally viewing Spielberg's 2021 re-imagining of the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story, and in an actual movie theater, all I can say is Mr. Spielberg, we're not worthy.
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Though most grew up with the 1961 Best Picture Oscar winner, Spielberg has actually gone back to the original 1957 Broadway musical and returned certain scenes and songs to their original place in the libretto. Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has done a superb job of adapting Arthur Laurents' original screenplay, primarily by peppering a lot of the Sharks' dialogue with actual Spanish, even utilizing it in a couple of very crucial scenes where English seems to be required. Kushner also manages to flesh out minor supporting characters like Chino, Anybodys, and Sergeant Krupke, without making the movie four hours long.
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Spielberg makes instant improvement upon the '61 film by not only casting actual Latino actors as the sharks, but by casting four actors in the leads who can actually sing, which brings an added richness to the score. For those unaware, the only actor in the 1961 film who did all his own singing was George Chakiris. Was particularly impressed by Rachel Zegler's bell-like lyric soprano, Ariana DeBose's ferocious belt as Anita, which reminded me of Broadway's original Anita, Chita Rivera, and especially Ansel Elgort's Tony, the first Tony whose songs didn't sound like an opera singer with a standout rendering of "Something's Coming". The attention to the music was unparalleled...was particularly delighted with the fact that I understood every lyric of "America" and the restored full version of one of Broadway's greatest duets "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love." They are also aided by absolutely gorgeous orchestrations.
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Justin Peck, who was the subject of a 2014 documentary called Ballet 422, provided splendid choreography, something that fans expect from this show,. I would have liked to have seen a little more dancing in the opening, but the dance at the gym was spectacular, only outdone by "America" where Peck took the number off the rooftop in '61 and brought it on the street and made the number explode off the screen.
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Spielberg never forgets the love story at the center of the spectacle, getting star-making performances from Rachel Zegler, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her impressive film debut, and Elgort doing exemplary work on the most difficult role in the movie. DeBose creates a genuine spitfire in Anita and David Alvarez and Jose Andres Rivera bring more to the roles of Bernardo and Chino than the screenplay provides.
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And needless to say that Spielberg's inclusion of 1961 Anita, Rita Moreno, to the story, was lovely. Her interpretation of "Somewhere" could ignite a tear duct. The film will probably win the Golden Globe for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical and a Best Picture Oscar nomination is not out of the question. Really didn't think Spielberg could pull this off, but he nailed it. 4.5

[Gideon58]

Hero at Large
Despite an utterly charming performance from the late John Ritter in the starring role, 1980's Hero at Large is a dull and predictable comedy that suffers from a swiss cheese screenplay and lethargic direction. The Marvel comic book movies age we live in today makes this look pretty lame.
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Ritter plays Steve Nichols, a struggling actor who is making a few bucks making live appearances at movie theaters promoting a movie about this fictional superhero. One night while stopping at a store to buy milk, still in costume, he foils a robbery, which gains some attention for Steve but not much. He decides to go out and look for a crime to foil and finds himself in a high speed chase that climaxes with him getting shot in the arm. This is enough to send him into hiding with a pretty neighbor (Anne Archer), but changes his mind when a slick publicist (the late Bert Convy) they stage crimes for him to break up, in exchange for the role of Brick in a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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The screenplay by AJ Carothers (The Secret of My Success) attempts to cover a little too much territory as it not only tries to look into the business of show business, it also takes jabs at advertising, mob sensibility, and politics. Carothers seems to set up Nichols as a comic variation of Travis Bickle, as several references to the 1976 classic can be evidenced, including an appearance of the Mayor of New York, played by Leonard Harris, who played the Senator Bickle wanted to murder in the Scorsese classic and the cab stand that was the hangout for the cabbies in the film is also glanced here. Not sure of the connection that Carothers saw between the two movie, but it sure makes for an often squirm-worthy cinematic journey that moves at snail's pace to a finale that's too silly to be believed.
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Martin Davidson's direction is unimaginative and makes the movie seem three hours long. Archer is a lovely leading lady but Convy and Kevin McCarthy's roles are thankless. And if you pay attention, there's a tiny cameo at the beginning of the film by Kevin Bacon that's equally pointless. Ritter's charisma helps to keep the viewer from dozing off. 2.5

[gbgoodies]

West Side Story (2021)
Disbelief and outrage were this reviewer's initial reaction to the news that Stephen Spielberg planned to do this, but after finally viewing Spielberg's 2021 re-imagining of the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story, and in an actual movie theater, all I can say is Mr. Spielberg, we're not worthy.
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Though most grew up with the 1961 Best Picture Oscar winner, Spielberg has actually gone back to the original 1957 Broadway musical and returned certain scenes and songs to their original place in the libretto. Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has done a superb job of adapting Arthur Laurents' original screenplay, primarily by peppering a lot of the Sharks' dialogue with actual Spanish, even utilizing it in a couple of very crucial scenes where English seems to be required. Kushner also manages to flesh out minor supporting characters like Chino, Anybodys, and Sergeant Krupke, without making the movie four hours long.
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Spielberg makes instant improvement upon the '61 film by not only casting actual Latino actors as the sharks, but by casting four actors in the leads who can actually sing, which brings an added richness to the score. For those unaware, the only actor in the 1961 film who did all his own singing was George Chakiris. Was particularly impressed by Rachel Zegler's bell-like lyric soprano, Ariana DeBose's ferocious belt as Anita, which reminded me of Broadway's original Anita, Chita Rivera, and especially Ansel Elgort's Tony, the first Tony whose songs didn't sound like an opera singer with a standout rendering of "Something's Coming". The attention to the music was unparalleled...was particularly delighted with the fact that I understood every lyric of "America" and the restored full version of one of Broadway's greatest duets "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love." They are also aided by absolutely gorgeous orchestrations.
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Justin Peck, who was the subject of a 2014 documentary called Ballet 422, provided splendid choreography, something that fans expect from this show,. I would have liked to have seen a little dancing in the opening, but the dance at the gym was spectacular, only outdone by "America" where Peck took the number off the rooftop in '61 and brought on the street and made the number explode off the screen.
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Spielberg never forgets the love story at the center of the spectacle, getting star-making performances from Rachel Zegler, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her impressive film debut, and Elgort doing exemplary work on the most difficult role in the movie. DeBose creates a genuine spitfire in Anita and David Alvarez and Jose Andres Rivera bring more to the roles of Bernardo and Chino than the screenplay provides.
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And needless to say that Spielberg's inclusion of 1961 Anita, Rita Moreno, to the story, was lovely. Her interpretation of "Somewhere" could ignite a tear duct. The film will probably win the Golden Globe for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical and a Best Picture Oscar nomination is not out of the question. Really didn't think Spielberg could pull this off, but he nailed it. 4.5


I've been looking forward to seeing Spielberg's version of West Side Story since the first time I read about it, so I'm glad to hear how good it is. Unfortunately it will probably be a while before I get a chance to see it.

[Gideon58]

Make sure you see it in an actual theater...online can't do it justice.

[gbgoodies]

I've been looking forward to seeing Spielberg's version of West Side Story since the first time I read about it, so I'm glad to hear how good it is. Unfortunately it will probably be a while before I get a chance to see it.

Make sure you see it in an actual theater...online can't do it justice.


I have no plans to go to the theater as long as there's still a pandemic going on, so it will probably be years before I go back to the theater.

I'll just have to take my chances watching it on the small screen eventually. :(

[Gideon58]

Being the Ricardos
After his triumph last year with The Trial of the Chicago 7, which I thought was the best film of 2020, I would like to report that Aaron Sorkin's latest project, 2021's Being the Ricardos, an up close and personal look at classic Hollywood royalty, was as good, not to say that it isn't worth a look.
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This film starts out as a look into the production of the television series I Love Lucy and its stars, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who made it the most successful television comedy in history. The story begins at the table read (where the cast sits down and reads the script for the first time) for episode 4 of season two of the show, titled "Fred and Ethel Fight". It is during the production of this episode where we find Lucy fighting multiple battles with the sponsors about problems with the script, while she has also been called to testify to the Committee on Un-American Activities after being accused of being a communist.
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This one week in the life of Lucy and Desi was rife with enough material for a really great movie, but Sorkin tries to cover a bit too much territory here, going back to the stars' first meeting on the set of Too Many Girls, through Lucy's less-than-stellar career as a B movie queen, through her multiple battles to simultaneously re-ignite her career and save her marriage by making Desi believe he was in charge of I Love Lucy, which only came to fruition because Lucy told CBS she wouldn't do it without Desi.
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The movie gets less interesting as it moves away from season 2 episode 4, but a lot of stuff about Lucy's extraordinary career are given screentime here. Lucy's frustration with her movie career, her never-ending paranoia about Desi's infidelity, the antagonism between Vivian Vance and Williams Frawley, and Lucy's constant battle to make Desi look like the boss on the set of I Love Lucy, though nothing could have been further from the truth. Loved all the scenes of Lucy trying to get the opening scene of the episode done the way she wanted and her and Desi's battle to get Lucy's pregnancy written into the show.
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Sorkin put a lot of care and research into this production, I just wish he had concentrated a little more on this specific week as it is setup because it becomes obvious pretty quickly that everything that happens in this movie did not happen during the shooting of episode 4, season 2.
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As for the performances, Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Jarvier Bardem work extremely hard in the starring roles, but I never see Lucy and Desi onscreen, I always know I'm watching Kidman and Jarvier, who bring no humor to the performances, not that this film is a comedy, but a movie about Lucy and Desi should provide some laughs. The only real laughs come from Oscar winner JK Simmons as William Frawley, who deserves an Oscar nomination. Tony Hale's performance as Jess Oppenheimer is Oscar-worthy as well, but these performances don't cover up the fact that Sorkin's screenplay is a little overstuffed and makes this docudrama a little labored. 3

[Takoma11]

Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levinson (Dear Evan Hansen, Fosse/Verdon) have decided to use the score to flash out characters, advance story, or as in the case of the number "Therapy", musically reinterpret a scene without music.

Funny you mention Levinson, I just started watching Fosse/Verdon yesterday and am LOVING it.

I agree totally with your review. I mean, I am a medium theater/stage-musical fan, but I was totally taken with this film. The imaginative and audacious visuals are just so engaging.

Andrew Garfield had not really been on my radar previously. (I mean, I knew he played Spiderman and was a big name actor, but that was about the extent of it). He so impressed me here.

[Gideon58]

Funny you mention Levinson, I just started watching Fosse/Verdon yesterday and am LOVING it.

I agree totally with your review. I mean, I am a medium theater/stage-musical fan, but I was totally taken with this film. The imaginative and audacious visuals are just so engaging.

Andrew Garfield had not really been on my radar previously. (I mean, I knew he played Spiderman and was a big name actor, but that was about the extent of it). He so impressed me here.

OMG, I am in the middle of re-watching Fosse/Verdon right now...we must be spiritual animals or something, LOL!

[Gideon58]

The Snake Pit
One of Hollywood's earliest looks at mental illness,The Snake Pit is a dark and uncompromising look at one woman's journey to complete mental destruction that is so compelling it received six Oscar nominations, including one for the Best Picture of 1948.
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Fresh off her first Oscar win for To Each His Own, Olivia de Havilland was pegged for the complex role of Virginia Cunningham, a writer who has a nervous breakdown after her brief courtship and marriage to Robert Cunningham (Mark Stevens). Virginia has no memory of what led to her breakdown or being committed. As she enters the land of assorted fruits and nuts, she finds the only person she can trust is Dr. Kik (Leo Genn) even though his initial treatment regiment includes shock therapy. Eventually, Virginia improves to the point where she is assigned a private room and we think there is hope for her.
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The Oscar nominated screenplay, based on a novel by Mary Jane Ward, is slightly confusing because when we meet Virginia, she has already been committed and her only connection to reality is the voices in her head, leaving the viewer in the dark about what happened. We are further frustrated when near about the halfway point, it seems that Dr. Kik knows what's wrong, but wants Virginia to figure it out for herself. The saddest part of Virginia's plight is how the hospital's administration want her out because of overcrowding, but Virginia knows she's where she's supposed to be and is not interested in getting out at all.
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That was the most interesting aspect of the story. The fact that more than one opportunity arises for Virginia to leave the hospital but she doesn't want to. Eventually, her illness, as suspected, is connected to a childhood trauma and the reveal of that trauma was a bit of a letdown, but believable.
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Director Anatole Litvak (Sorry Wrong Number) mounts a creepy and atmospheric melodrama that rivets the viewer to the screen and yearning for Virginia's return to reality. Litvak shows some real flair with the camera...loved that shot of de Havilland in the middle of the open ward that rises and expands upward while Virginia describes exactly where she is...the snake pit.
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Olivia de Havilland loses herself in a brilliantly unhinged performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Ironically, de Havilland would win a second Oscar for her next film The Heiress. Stevens and Genn made the most of their screen time and if you don't blink, you'll catch the future Mrs. Howell, Natalie Schafer, in a cameo as well as Betsy Blair, who seven year later would star with Ernest Borgnine in Marty as a dangerous mental patient. It's a little over the top at times, but still a sad and frightening film from which I could not look away. 4

[Takoma11]

OMG, I am in the middle of re-watching Fosse/Verdon right now...we must be spiritual animals or something, LOL!

Hee!

I'll come in here and demand opinions when I'm done! So far I am loving both lead performances. I also really like the absolutely bonkers way it jumps around in time. Michelle Williams is such an amazing actress. I just fall in love with her all over again every time I see her in something new.

[Gideon58]

You know Michelle Williams won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Fosse/Verdon

[Takoma11]

You know Michelle Williams won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Fosse/Verdon

I didn't (because I'm kind of tuned out of awards these days) but I believe it and from what I've seen so far it's totally earned.

[Gideon58]

Wait til you see ep 5 called "Where Am I Going"....incredible.

[Gideon58]

Don't Look Up
Adam McKay, the creative force behind a film I liked called Vice and a film I hated called The Big Short scores a bullseye with a ferocious black comedy called Don't Look Up, a smoldering indictment on the effects of politics and social media on our very existence, buoyed by a sparkling all star cast, including five Oscar winners.
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This 2021 epic stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy an astronomer who, with the assistance of a PHD candidate named Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers that a giant comet is hurdling toward the earth, will land in about six months, and will destroy the planet. Randall and Kate fly to Washington to report their discovery to the President (Meryl Streep) but she doesn't want to cause a panic until her scientific team has a chance to look into it. Randall and Kate then go to the media and are pretty much laughed in the face by the New York Herald and a talk show called The Daily Rip. As the reaction to their news tears Randall and Kate apart, a cyber billionaire (Mark Rylance) steps forward and announces that the comet can be beneficial to the planet if it is broken up before it lands, but his plan is really predicated on a secret about the comet that could further line his pockets.
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Adam McKay has created an emotional roller coaster here that began in an almost farcical manner, producing nervous laughs as McKay's screenplay starts off seriously tongue in cheek but grows more serious as the story progresses. The scene where Randall and Kate first appear on the Daily Rip had my stomach tied in knots because the co-hosts, beautifully played by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry, didn't have a clue how serious this was and their reaction to Kate's meltdown made my heart sink. And when I thought I had seen enough, we see Randall return to the show for further devastation, in what was probably my favorite scene in the film, brilliantly directed by McKay and brilliantly acted by DiCaprio.
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The saddest part of the story is what this horror does to Randall and Kate's relationship as Randall is initially embraced by social media and Kate becomes a social media pariah. As I began to mourn the end of their very special relationship at the final third of the film, their relationship and everything else changes as Randall and Kate first notice the comet in the air simultaneously, but from different locations, a moment that ignited this reviewer's tear ducts.
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This film was frightening and had my stomach in knots for most of the running time, not because it really happened, but because it could happen and there was nothing unrealistic here, as horrific as it was. McKay's direction is sharp and imaginative and he works wonders with an incredible cast. DiCaprio has rarely been better and Lawrence's Kate leaps off the screen into the viewer's soul. Also loved Blanchett as the flighty talk show host, Jonah Hill as the President's Chief of Staff, Timothee Chalamet as a fanboy/gamer drawn to Kate, Mark Rylance as the goofy billionaire, and the accustomed crisp and humorous turn from Streep as the POTUS. An edgy black comedy that takes no prisoners and left this reviewer limp. 4.5

[Gideon58]

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis
MGM puts some effort into a pointless musical comedy called The Affairs of Dobie Gillis which features some past and future stars in front of the camera in an economical but dumb story that is almost made watchable by some terrific musical sequences but not enough music or the MGM gloss to make this viable entertainment.
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The 1953 film stars Bobby Van as the title character, a college student who thinks the only reason to go to college is to meet girls. Upon arrival, he meets Pansy Hammer (Debbie Reynolds), who thinks the only reason to go to college is to study. Despite their opposite views regarding college, they are drawn to each other, thanks to some shoving from Dobie's best pal, Charlie (Bob Fosse), and strong objections from Pansy's father (Hanley Stafford).
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Not sure what was really going on here, but for the studio that was the king of musicals in the 1950's, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of care or effort put into this film in terms of production values or story. Max Schulman's screenplay has all the substance of a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical, which are usually beefed up by strong musical numbers but even the musical sequences are few and far between. We have to wait until the halfway point of the film before the first musical number, a jazzy dance number featuring Fosse, at the top of his form, dancing with the other leads in a number I'm pretty sure he choreographed. A duet between Reynolds and Van turns out to be "All I Do is Dream of You", which Reynolds performed the previous year in Singin in the Rain. Van's dance solo to "I'm Through with Love" had a very Gene Kelly quality to it. Two or three numbers like that one, or a challenge dance with Van like the one Fosse did with Tommy Rall in My Sister Eileen would have helped.
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Some familiar faces pop up in the supporting cast including Lurene Tuttle as Pansys' mother, Hans Conreid as a snooty English professor, and the eternally grouchy Charles Lane as a chemistry professor, but this one just seems to suffer because of severe budget restrictions from keeping it what it should have been. The film was later turned into a TV series called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis with Dwayne Hickman playing Dobie. 2.5

[Citizen Rules]

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis
The film was later turned into a TV series called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis wit Dwayne Hickman playing Dobie. rating_2_5What interested me about the film besides being a proto type for the TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis...was the hair style of Debbie Reynolds. Which looked nothing like an early 1950s hair style, but looked very much like the upsweeped & off the ears bi-level hair style for women in the mid 1980s. I swear I knew a girl in the mid 80s who had the exact same hairstyle too. I just thought that was interesting.

[Gideon58]

Belfast
Director and screenwriter Kenneth Branagh scores with 2021's Belfast, an ambitious and gut-wrenching look at war primarily through the eyes of a child that provides genuine originality through sterling production values that provide often some arresting visuals, and a handful of remarkable performances.
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The movie opens in 1969 Belfast, Northern Ireland during the frightening religious conflict there between the Protestants and the Catholics and has had a profound effect on the family of a young boy named Buddy. whose parents and grandparents are doing everything they can to shield the boy and his older brother from the horrors of what is going on. Sadly, Buddy's parents have done such a good job of protecting Buddy from what's going on, that he is resistant when his parents suggest they must leave Belfast for their own safety. Not to mention that Buddy has begun to develop a crush on a girl at school, who, is, of course, Catholic while Buddy is Protestant.
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Branagh's screenplay establishes battle lines in a place where the lines are often hard to understand. I was a kid myself when all this was going on and there was a time that I remember Belfast being mentioned on the news on a daily basis. The war in Belfast was particularly frustrating because this was another conflict fought in the name of God, a troubling but realistic foundation for a lot of our world's history of war.
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Loved Branagh's visual conception of the story. The story opens with a colorful postcard of present day Belfast then flashes back to 1969 where the majority of the story is told in black and white. It's then established that this family's only escape from the horrors of the war are through trips to the cinema and to the theater. When the family goes to the cinema to see Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC and when they go to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the clips of these movies are in color. There's also a lovely scene where Buddy and his grandmother go to see a stage version of A Christmas Carol, where the audience is in black and white, but the show onstage is in color. There's a lovely shot of Grandma in the audience watching the show in black and white and the reflection of the show onstage in her glasses is in color...just amazing.
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Branagh has mounted a story that doesn't offer a lot of contrived and pat answers to this senseless war, but it offers enough of a balance between realism and hope that we remain invested in what's going on. Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dorman are impressively conflicted as Buddy's parents and an unrecognizable Judi Dench offers an Oscar-worthy turn as Buddy's grandmother, but it is young Jude Hill who commands the screen and carries the film as young Buddy, a performance that should earn him an Oscar nomination. Must also mention Branagh;s choice of a song score for this story, which frames the story perfectly and completely defies description. A winner. 4

[Gideon58]

Who's Got the Action?
The story is clever and the cast is solid for the most part, but the 1962 comedy Who's Got the Action is a labored and sluggish comedy that doesn't provide the laughs it should.
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The film stars Dean Martin as Steve Flood, a lawyer addicted to betting on the horses who has been hiding his sickness from his beautiful Melanie (Lana Turner), with help from his law partner Clint Morgan (Eddie Albert), who has been harboring a secret crush on Melanie for years. Melanie was convinced that Steve has been cheating on her, but is relieved to learn from Clint that her husband has been gambling. Melanie asks Clint to get Steve to abandon his bookie and start using Melanie as his new bookie without him knowing it's Melanie. Unfortunately, after taking on Melanie as his new bookie sight unseen, Steve hits a winning streak that motivates other clients of his original bookie to go to Melanie, including two municipal court judges.
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The basic premise of Jack Rose's screenplay is a good one, but something really gets lost in its transfer to the screen. I think the primary problem with the story is that the Melanie character is not the brightest bulb in the row and that she really had no idea what she was getting into when she decided to become a fake bookie. It appears that it never occurred to her that Steve would actually win any of his bets and that's where the story begins to fall apart. Between Steve and the judges bets, Melanie finds herself in debt to the head of a gambling syndicate (Walter Matthau) and trying to pay off her debts, finds herself having to sell off everything she owns to pay her debts.
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One of the main problems here is the miscasting of the role of Melanie. The role really requires someone possessed of some comic timing and Lana Turner has never really been known for comedy and despite her absolutely drop dead gorgeous Edith Head wardrobe, just looks out of place in this kind of slapstick comedy. Circa 1962, I would have preferred to see someone like Natalie Wood or Janet Leigh in this role.
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The sluggish direction by Daniel Mann doesn't help. Again, we have a someone who is accustomed to drama (Come Back Little Sheba, The Rose Tattoo) in the director's chair and it really shows. The running tine was a little over 90 minutes, but I swear I had a birthday while watching this movie.
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The rest of the cast is solid though...Dean Martin brings his usual breeziness to the role of Steve and Eddie Albert was terrific as Clint, bringing substance to the role that wasn't in the screenplay. And it goes without saying that Walter Matthau stole every scene he was in as the syndicate head. Loved Paul Ford and John McGiver as the judges and Nita Talbot as a nightclub singer named Saturday Knight. Ned Glass and Jack Albertson can also be spotted in small roles, and that's Albert's real-life wife, Margo playing the Floods' housekeeper, Roza, but this one definitely lost something in its translation from page to screen. Even spectacular production values didn't disguise what a turkey this was. 2

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C'mon C'mon
From the creative force behind the 2010 film Beginners, 2021's C'mon C'mon is an intimate, edgy, and delicately crafted look at a severely broken family that's combination of complexity and artistry requires complete attention from the review and said attention is rewarded.
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The film stars Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny, a radio journalist who travels across the country conducting interviews with children regarding the state of the world. A year after the death of his mother, Johnny travels to Los Angeles to see his sister, Viv (Gaby Hoffman) and upon his arrival, Viv asks Johnny if he would take care of his nephew, Jesse, so that Viv can track down her missing, mentally ill husband. Johnny stays in LA for a couple of weeks but work commitments demand his return to New York and he has no choice but to take Jesse with him.
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Director and screenwriter Mike Mills gives us a lot to absorb here, but he does it with such panache that we can't help but be up to the challenge. He has constructed a strong and riveting story with this family, but he manages to blend in random interviews with the children. These interviews take up a smidge too much screentime but they are fascinating in their appearance to be unscripted. Watching these interviews did make it hard to pinpoint exactly when this film takes place. The only clue Mills provides is that it's post Hurricane Katrina, but there is no mention of covid or is anyone wearing masks. If it were in the present and children were being asked about the state of the world, covid should have come up at some point. Eventually, when it takes place became irrelevant.
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When the story is focused on the family, it totally hits a bullseye...Mills provides backstory through carefully crafted flashbacks, with and without dialogue, that assemble a lot of the family dynamic for the viewer. Among things these flashbacks reveal is that Johnny and Viv fought a lot about the care of their mother and when Jesse's dad became sick, Viv tried to shield Jesse from as much of it as possible. Loved the multiple moments of Johnny and Viv reading the L Frank Baum novel The Wizard of Oz and the initial tentative bonding of Johnny and Jesse, which was one step forward, two steps back for the most of the running time.
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Another thing I loved about this story is that the Jesse character is not bathed in this angelic victim light. In order to shield him from the pain from what was happening, Viv has spoiled this kid rotten and puts up with a lot of crap from this kid, without informing Johnny of any of it before they leave for New York. There are too separate scenes of Jesse disappearing on Johnny that are initially terrifying, but they actually play out two different ways, which was impressive. This kid loved to scare the hell out of his uncle, which this reviewer found troublesome, but his uncle's tolerance of his behavior was forgiven because the kid is his nephew.
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Mills' directorial eye is so stylish here...shot in stunning black and white, Mills provides some gorgeous postcards of LA and New York and when it's time to focus in on the family, the camera work is so deliberately intrusive...every time the camera moves in on the family, the camera is either coming slowly around a corner or excusing itself as it tries to leave the room without being noticed. Joaquin Phoenix's gutsy performance as Johnny reminded me of his performance in Her, an effective blend of sensitivity and strength. Gaby Hoffman gives the performance of her career as the hot mess Viv, this character just broke my heart and Hoffman had a lot to do with that. Young Woody Norman commands the screen as little Jesse, never shying away from the negative aspects of the character. Already being impressed with this performance, I was blown away when I learned via the IMDB that Norman is British and employs a perfect American accent for this movie. Despite a tad of overindulgence, this film is pretty special. 4

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Faithful
My recent viewing of the Paul Mazursky dramedy Blume in Love prompted a look at another forgotten gem from the Mazursky library...a scorching black comedy called Faithful that keeps the viewer in the dark to exactly what's going on here.
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Cher stars as Maggie, a pampered and wealthy housewife who is also in a deep depression because her husband, Jack (Ryan O'Neal) is cheating on her. As Maggie completes a suicide note and prepares to swallow a bottle of pills, a hitman named Tony (Chazz Palminteri) breaks in her house, ties her to a chair on wheels, and tells her that he has been hired by her husband to kill her but to rape her first to make it look more unplanned. Tony has been instructed for the phone to ring twice and stop as the moment to carry out the plan while Jack establishes his alibi far far away.
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The screenplay is actually based on a a play written by Palminteri, who also wrote the play that became A Bronx Story. The story is a little on the talky side, revealing its stage origins, but he has created a couple flawed and fascinating characters in Maggie and Tony. Tony is particularly broken, revealing to be under a therapist's care, who he actually has on the phone sessions with while committing the crime, which we don't see coming. A second phone signal is established for the shrink, which creates unbearable tension every time the phone rings. The shrink is brilliantly played by the director. I also love when Tony is pushing Maggie around in the chair on wheels.
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The film doesn't take too much time with exposition, though one seemingly unimportant moment during Jack and Maggie's reception does come into play. I love the transition that the Maggie character goes through, initially indifferent at the thought of dying, but eventually deciding to fight back in a couple of ways, one way that sets up an undeniable sexual tension between Maggie and Tony. As the film careens towards its sizzling finale, we begin getting several different versions of exactly what's going on here, kind of like the film Deathtrap, where we're never sure of what's really happening and, if the truth be told, I'm still not 100% sure of what happened here.
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Mazursky has employed dazzling production values here to make it one of the most attractive photographed stage plays I've ever seen. Cher and Palminteri light up the screen and even O'Neal is effectively cast against type. And if you don't blink you'll catch a glimpse of Oscar winner Allyson Janney. A forgotten gem from the resume of Paul Mazursky. 3.5

[Nidhi766]

Thanks! for sharing these reviews
If you're looking for a move based on a true story watch. 12 Years Of Slave
I watched it yesterday, it literally made me cry.

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The Power of the Dog
A Golden Globe nominee for Best Motion Picture Drama of 2021, The Power of the Dog is a dark and sweeping psychological epic rife with such raw intensity and sexual tension that it dares the viewer to creep into some shocking areas of human nature and then allowing the viewer to decide if they want to make that plunge or not.
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The setting is 1925 Montana where we meet Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbact). an iron-fisted rancher who has been running his ranch for years with his brother, George (Jesse Plemmons), though he has always made clear to George who the boss is. During a respite while taking cattle to market, Phil, George, and their men stop at the Red Mill restaurant, which is run by a charming widow named Rose (Kirsten Dunst), who has a sensitive young artist son named Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Phil and his men ridicule and harass the widow and her son to the point where George feels he has to apologize to Rose. The men return to their ranch but George goes back to the Red Mill, returning to the family ranch a few days later announcing he has married Rose, a move that changes the course of all the people involved forever.
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Jane Campion, who won an Oscar for writing the 1994 film The Piano has crafted a story of ethereal beauty and sexual depravity that keeps the viewer wondering exactly what's going on from one scene to the next because nothing is overt or in our face. Its approach to exposition is slow and deliberate making the movie taking a little too much time get going, but once it does, we find ourselves fascinated as we find ourselves drawn to the enigmatic Phil Burbank, a charismatic figure whose authority over his crew resembles Jesus and his disciples. We also see a man with some serious demons eating him up inside through bizarre behavior when he is alone. We are perplexed as Rose marries a man she doesn't really love but jumps out of her chair whenever Phil is 100 feet from her. There's a great scene of her alone playing the piano while outside Phil is duplicating the tune on a guitar, that came off like a twisted version of the "Duellin Banjos" scene in Deliverance.
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Campion has mounted an absolutely gorgeous film here, where the stunning exteriors quietly hide the sickness within the story. Campion's camera brings story as close to the ugliness as it can without completely exposing it. Campion allows the viewer to make certain decisions about the story, that make viewer imagination go to some really dark places. There is a lot of unpleasantness on display including some shocking cruelty to animals, so if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, be forewarned.
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I must admit this was my first real exposure to Benedict Cumberbatch, outside his part of the large ensemble cast of August: Osage County, and if this performance is any indication of the man's talent, will definitely be checking out more of his work. I can't recall performance in a while that was so simultaneously bone-chilling and sexy. Plemmons is warm and likable as George and I've never enjoyed Dunst more onscreen, in a complex role. Production values are spectacular with shout-outs to cinematography, music, and especially sound...loved the sound of Phil's boots clomping across the floor. Fans of There Will be Blood will have a head start here. 4

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Pagan Love Song
MGM struck out with 1950's Pagan Love Song, a snore-inducing musical that bored me to death, despite some gorgeous scenery and two of MGM's biggest stars in the leads.
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Howard Keel and his lush baritone arrive in Tahiti as Hap Endicott, a schoolteacher from Ohio who arrives in Tahiti to inherit a plantation. Upon arrival he is instantly drawn to Mimi (Esther Wiliams), an attractive half-white, half native girl who is getting ready to leave Tahiti for America, decides it would be fun to stay in Tahiti and toy with Hap by pretending to barely speak English.
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This movie, based upon a novel called "Tahiti Windfall", offers very little for the viewer to hang to here, outside some beautiful island scenery, Howard Keel singing shirtless, and Esther cavorting in the water surrounded by handsome native boys, there's just not enough any of this. Esther's first real choreographed encounter with the water doesn't happen until almost halfway through the movie, as does her first kiss with Keel. There's a whole lot of screentime spent watching the natives fall allover themselves to make sure the Big Kahuna
white master Keel is made comfortable. Keel even spends five minutes chasing a pig around the island.
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There are a few musical highlights, but nothing special. There's one number called "Singin in the Sun" that is staged exactly like Judy Garland's "Happy Harvest' in Summer Stock.
Keel and Williams generate some chemistry and there is a brief appearance by a young Rita Moreno, playing one of those stereotyped island girls she talked about in her documentary. One of MGM's most dismal entries, for hardcore fans of the stars only. 1.5

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The Lost Daughter
Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal makes a sincere debut behind the camera with The Lost Daughter, a delicately crafted character study about a woman forced to look at a past that she has been working very hard to forget.
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The 2021 Netflix offering stars Oscar winner Olivia Colman as Leda, a college professor on vacation in a small coastal town in Greece. After a couple of days, her solace is interrupted by a large family gathering at the beach for a birthday celebration. Leda witness a minor crisis within the family that is quickly averted, but it eventually forces Leda to face some serious demons from her own past.
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Gyllenhaal collaborated on the screenplay with an Elena Ferrante, who research revealed to be a pseudonym for the real author of the novel is based on, which says a couple of things to this reviewer. One, that the novelist had issues with the finished product and two, there are autobiographical elements to the story. As it has become fashion in cinema today. the film opens with the end and then flashes back, which I think was a detriment here. The leisurely introduction of Lena as a vacationer would have kept the viewer in suspense a lot longer than it does. Between her meeting with the lonely innkeeper (another terrific performance by the underrated Ed Harris) and her reaction to the family's intruding on her quiet vacation, her reluctance to answer questions from strangers, we begin to wonder if we're ever going to learn exactly what happened.
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Instead, we are given access to Leda's past, played simultaneously with another actress playing the younger Leda. Surprises we really don't see coming are revealed during the reveal of Leda's story including a troublesome relationship with her daughters and a passionate affair that destroyed her marriage, which makes the pain we see bottled up inside Leda when we first meet her a lot more understandable.
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Gyllenhaal's direction is easy and deliberate, allowing the story to unfold more slowly than described. We're almost halfway into the film before young Leda is revealed. The collaborative effort between Gyllenhaal and Colman to insure that we don't learn what Gyllenhaal wants us to learn until she wants us to. There are a couple of scenes, like the scene in the movie theater, that provide fire to the proceedings, but do nothing to advance story, making the film longer than it needs to be.
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The story doesn't provide the closure we hope for with Leda, including some unforeseen consequences. Gyllenhaal has provided impressive spectacular production values for an indie production including the gorgeous Greek on location photography. As she always does, Olivia Colman provides an exquisitely moving performance as Leda. Bouquets as well to Jessie Buckley and the charismatic Peter Skarsgaard as Leda's young lover. It's not a home run, but an impressive first-time-out-of-the box for Maggie Gyllenhaal. 3.5

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All the Fine Young Cannibals
1960's All the Fine Young Cannibals is an over-the-top melodrama that starts off promisingly, but gets dumber and dumber as the story progresses.
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The story starts off in rural Texas, where we meet Sarah "Salome" Davis", a teenage Scarlett O'Hara, whose star-crossed romance with Chad Bixby (Robert Wagner) comes to an end when he gets her pregnant and can't support her. Salome hops a train and meets a handsome Yale college student named Tony McDowell (George Hamilton), moves on campus with him and convinces him the baby is his. Meanwhile, Chad's talent as a blues trumpeter is discovered by an alcoholic singer named Ruby Jones (Pearl Bailey), who decides to take him to New York where she's sure she can find work for him playing trumpet. Salome learns Chad is in New York and manipulates a reunion with Chad. Throw into the mix Tony's trampy sister, Catherine (Susan Kohner), who brings her own brand of bitchiness to this demented love triangle.
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The primary culprit here is the convoluted screenplay by first time screenwriter Robert Thom, whose later credits would include Crazy Mama and Death Race 2000. The script never really makes clear what the relationship between Chad and Ruby is, because Ruby appears to have the hots for him in one scene and consider him an albatross around her neck the next. We're past the halfway point of the film when we realize that Tony thinks he is the father of Salome's baby, but the film lost this reviewer a few scenes earlier when Chad and Salome are finally reunited and the whole thing just goes by Tony, making him look dumb as a box of rocks.
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The film does have some significance as the first film appearance from Hollywood supercouple Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood, a few years after they had started dating IRL. The chemistry is definitely there...their first kiss in this movie practically burns a hole in the screen, too bad the rest of the movie just wasn't worthy of the future Mr. and Mrs. Wagner.
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Hamilton tries to make us believe that his character isn't as stupid as he appears to be. Kohner, fresh off her Oscar-nominated performance in Imitation of Life is just as terrible in this film as she was in that one. Screen vets like Louise Beavers, Anne Seymour, and Mabel Albertson can be glimpsed in support, but the acting honors here really go to Pearl Bailey as Ruby Jones, a heartbreaking turn, which includes a powerhouse rendition of "God Bless the Child", but most of the movie is a melodramatic mess. 2

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Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
A quietly powerful performance from Joanne Woodward anchors a forgotten drama from 1973 called Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams.
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Woodward plays Rita, the middle-aged wife of an eye doctor, who is sent into an emotional tailspin with the sudden death of her mother, forcing her to re-examine all the relationships in her life and her part in their extensive damage.
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The sensitive screenplay is by Stewart Stern, who also wrote 1968's Rachel, Rachel, and the 1976 mini series Sybil, which both featured Woodward. The story is not complex, but Stern choses different styles in which to present to the viewer. Loved the opening scene which featured Rita on a plane getting ready to crash and trying to communicate to her fellow passengers, who are equally frightened about what's going on but are unable to communicate with Rita. This clearly establishes that what we are seeing is a dream sequence, establishing Rita as suicidal.
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The movie also instantly establishes Rita's relationship with her mother, who awakens her with a phone call and Rita lies that she's been up for hours. We are given a brilliant false start with Rita's mom where she begins to experience pain, but it is a false start, making mom's real heart attack all the more startling. Rita's life suddenly explodes before us on the screen unfiltered, exploding at everyone around her, including her loving husband Harry (Martin Balsam). There is scene at the cemetery where Rita and her family are waiting for mom's body to be delivered that had my stomach in knots.
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No cinematic trickery from director Gilbert Cates, just a simple character study of a woman on the edge. Woodward is splendid, as always, earning a third Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, that she lost to Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class, matched note for note by Balsam, as the sensitive Harry. Classic film legend Sylvia Sydney earned an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress for her flashy ten-minute performance as Rita's mother. It's not for all tastes, but appointment viewing for Woodward fans. 3.5

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The Tender Bar
Despite solid direction from Oscar winner George Clooney, 2021's The Tender Bar, is only about two thirds of the cinematic experience it was meant to be as the screenplay meanders a little too much before reaching a solid climax.
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This is the story of a young boy named JR who is being raised by his single mom, who move sin with his grandfather after he and Mom are deserted by his father, a radio disc jockey only known as "the voice", who JR has never actually met. JR and his mom are taken in by the family, with JR getting special attention from his Uncle Charlie (Oscar winner Ben Affleck), who has taken JR under his wing, despite the fact that he hates his brother. JR flourishes under his new surrogate father as the both try to put their relationship with "the voice" behind them.
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The screenplay William Monaghan (who makes a cameo appearance in the film) is based on the memoir of J.R. Moehringer, that establishes immediate sympathy for young JR as we realizes that this child has not only grown up without a father and that said father seems to have no remorse about it. One of the most fascinating scenes in the film is when JR's dad comes and picks him up for a ride, after promising to take him to a baseball game the previous day and standing the boy up. We're amazed at his lack of feeling about the boy during this scene which increases when we realize that "the voice" pretty much disappears from the boy's life for a lot of the remaining screentime.
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The movie then flashes forward to JR's college years at Yale, where the movie begins to lose me. JR's years aren't as interesting as the first half of the film, including an underdeveloped romance with a black girl. The film bounces back for a strong finale, but the middle section definitely begins to sag in the center and slow the film down.
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Clooney gets strong points for the 70's atmosphere he sets up in terms of settings and music, not to mention some strong performances. Affleck hasn't been this good since Hollywoodland and both Daniel Ranieri and Tye Sheridan score as the young and older JR. Clooney's work is impressive, but it's only about two thirds of a really good movie. 3

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Ash Wednesday
1973's Ash Wednesday is a lavishly mounted soap opera that suffers from a skimpy screenplay and sluggish direction, but is still worth a look thanks to a Hollywood legend in the starring role.
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This overheated melodrama stars the legendary Elizabeth Taylor as Barbara Sawyer, a wealthy Detroit housewife who has traveled all the way to Switzerland to have a facelift, thinking it will save her marriage to Mark (Henry Fonda). As she leaves the hospital, she moves to an elegant swiss hotel where she finds possible romance with two different men, but is in denial about the fact that Mark keeps delaying his plans to join her.
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The screenplay by Jean-Claude Tramont, who directed the 1981 Gene Hackman-Barbra Streisand comedy All Night Long is very sketchy, especially the middle section of the film where Barbara has left the hospital and moves into the hotel. One of the men who is supposedly in love with her, David (Keith Baxter) comes bursting into her hospital room the day she is to be discharged and starts going through her wardrobe, telling her what she should keep and what she should give away. He comes off more like a gay best friend than a romantic interest. As for her "romance" with Erich (Helmet Berger) , it consists of a lot of heated looks across the room before jumping into bed without saying two words to each other.
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The plastic surgery scenes were very interesting and a little hard to watch and Barbara's three meetings in the restaurant with Erich (Helmut Berger) were fun, especially the first one where Erich gets slapped by his girlfriend and the restaurant comes to a complete stop while Barbara and everyone stare at him. But by the time Barbara is visited by her daughter, we know exactly where this is going, even with anther 45 minutes of running time. I was amused by the photos of Taylor and Fonda in the opening credits which were obviously made up of photos of Taylor's private life with Fonda's head imposed and vice versa. Pretty sure the first couple of photos were from Taylor's wedding to Nicky Hilton.
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Director Larry Peerce made a much stronger impression with his work on 1964's The Incident, he just seemed out of his element here. Taylor looks breathtaking here with strong assists from Edith Head and Maurice Jarre's lush music score. For hardcore Taylor fans only. 2.5

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Sing 2
From the "If You Liked the First One" school of sequel making comes Sing 2, a splashy and brassy sequel to the surprise hit of 2016 that provides solid entertainment, despite an overly complex screenplay.
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This 2021 animated musical pretty much begins where the first one left off. Koala Bear Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) is enjoying a modicum success with the musical animal stars he discovered in the first film, but has decided he wants to expand and approaches a theater producing fox named Jimmy Crystal (voiced by Bobby Cannavale) about producing an outer space musical that Buster has written. Crystal agrees as lonh as Buster can convince former rock and roll lion Clay Calloway (voiced by Bono) to appear in the show.
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Buster, Rosita the Pig (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), Johnny the Ape (voiced by Taron Egerton), Ash the Porcupine (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), Meena the elephant (Tori Kelly), and Gunter the Pig (voiced by Nick Kroll) arrive at Mr. Crystal's theater and discover, among other things, that Johnny can't dance and must take a ballet class, a paralyzing fear of heights might cost Rosita her part, that Meena can't do a love scene with an arrogant bull (voiced by Eric Andre), and Mr. Crystal's spoiled brat daughter, Porsha (voiced by Halsey) wants Rosita's part in the show.
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Director, screenwriter, and the voice of Miss Calloway, Garth Jennings, works very hard here not to just duplicate what we saw in the first film. Several characters from the first film don't appear for whatever reason. The only one I really missed was Mike the Mouse voiced by Seth McFarlane, but Buster's motivations didn't really fly with this reviewer. He had a nice successful theater going at the end of the first film and it didn't really make sense that he would want to go to this brand new theater where he would have to kow-tow to this wolf Mr. Crystal and give up all the creative control he had at his own theater.
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If the truth be known, all of this went out of my head as, once again, Jennings has staged some of the most intoxicating and entertaining musical numbers created for an animated musical. From the opening "Let's Get Crazy" led by Egerton and Witherspoon", Egerton and Kelly's "There's Nothing Holding Me Back", Egerton's "A Sky Full of Stars", Bono and Johansson dueting on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for' and my personal favorite, Kelly and Pharrell Williams teaming up on "I Say a Little Prayer".
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Jennings puts a lot of care into production values, with special nods to art direction and sound. There is also standout voice work from McConaughey, Witherspoon, Cannavale, and Chelsea Perretti as Crystal's secretary. There's a slow spot here and there, but solid entertainment for a sequel. 4

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The Flintstones (1994)
The idea of a live action re-boot of the classic Hanna/Barbera cartoon series from the 60's probably seemed like a good idea on paper. However, other than some spectacular production values, this movie just didn't work for me.
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After recreating the classic opening credit sequence of Fred sliding off the dinosaur and taking his family to the drive-in, the story starts with Barney thanking Fred for lending him money so that he can adopt Bamm-Bamm and swearing to pay Fred back. A sleazy junior executive at Fred's construction company named Cliff Vandercave offers an executive position to one of the construction workers if they can pass a test. Barney sees that Fred's answers are all wrong and in an attempt to pay him back, switches his test with Fred's and Fred gets the new job. What Fred nor Barney know is that the new position is just a front for an embezzling scheme and one of the first things Cliff makes Fred do is fire Barney.
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I've loved The Flintstones ever since I was a kid and I really, really wanted to like this movie and I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what it is about the movie that doesn't work. Director Brian Levant (Jingle All the Way) does a superb job of establishing the look and period of the film...that stone-aged look with the contemporary sensibilities, including appliances that talk (though that is only utilized once here). Elaborate set pieces that look stone-age but have a contemporary feel loom throughout the movie, but it wasn't the settings and props made the cartoon series work, it was these four lead characters that endeared us to the show and that's where this show goes wrong.
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First of all, Fred would never loan Barney money so that he could adopt a baby, which didn't happen in the original series. Second animated Barney never would have switched those tests because he was always sick of being in Fred's shadow anyway. I did believe the wealth of his new position going to Fred's head, but firing Barney and watching him and Betty live on the streets? The animated Fred never would have done that.
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On the positive side, I can't think of a more perfect marriage of character and actor than Fred Flintstone and John Goodman. Rosie O'Donnell nails the Betty Rubble giggle and Kyle MacLachlan was an acceptable mustache-twirling villian. This film also marked the final feature film appearance of the iconic Elizabeth Taylor in an over the top turn as Fred's mother-in-law. The film is an impressive technical achievement, but it was the longest ninety minutes of my life. 2.5

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Mass
Still trying to collect my thoughts after watching the breathtaking feature film debut as a director and screenwriter of an actor named Fran Kranz called Mass, a shattering and gut-wrenching piece of contemporary theater put on film that left this reviewer limp. Will try to review this without spoilers.
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What is presented onscreen here is a meeting between two married couples/parents after a horrible, violent tragedy and trying to find some closure about it.
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This 2021 motion picture was a rare film experience written directly for the screen that felt like live theater transferred to the screen due to the intimacy of the situation and Kranz' approach to letting the story unfold, which seemed to have a very personal connection to him and it's felt in every frame.
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Kranz is very careful in providing an absolutely spine-tingling suspense in letting us know exactly what's going on. We're intrigued as a small church is preparing a room for some sort of meeting and a woman arrives on the scene to inspect the room and ensure that it is a proper setting for this meeting. She even asks for assurance that this meeting won't be disturbed by the choir rehearsal going on in the sanctuary. We know something very important is about to happen here and the venue is crucial. Even after the couples arrive, we are almost thirty-five minutes into the running time before the pieces of what is going on start to come together...very slowly.
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As I watched the pain these couples are in, backstory issues clouded my head without ever losing sight of what was going on. I wanted to know how long ago this incident occurred for one, a question which never gets answered. I wondered why this particular little church was chosen for this emotionally-charged meeting of healing, which is only answered in the abstract. I also wondered whose idea this meeting was, another question that is never really answered.
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Once we get down to what this meeting is about, there is enough raw emotion and angry resentment for a Eugene O'Neill play and that whatever happened has put these two couples through an emotional wringer which makes it hard to believe they are still together.
Kranz creates theater without a lot of theatricality...the story doesn't move from this room once the couples are left alone, the camera is appropriately obtrusive and there is no music score
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Kranz also pulls a quartet of extraordinary performances from Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and especially Martha Plimpton, who is totally Oscar worthy here. Kranz' work is Oscar-worthy as well, but being a newcomer behind the scenes, will probably be overlooked, but this film shouldn't be. 4.5

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Susan and God
Despite a problematic screenplay, the 1940 melodrama Susan and God is worth a look thanks to George Cukor's larger than life direction and some effective scenery-chewing by Joan Crawford in a role unlike anything she's ever done.
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This odd but watchable MGM drama stars Crawford as Susan Trexler, glamorous socialite who has just returned from a cruise to Europe, where she has apparently gone through some sort of religious transformation, thanks to someone named Lady Wigstaff. Upon her return home, she attempts to force her new religious beliefs on her family and friends, driving them crazy and having negative effect on all of their lives. Susan also attempts to repair her relationship with her alcoholic husband, Barrie (Fredric March) and her daughter, Blossom, which turns out to be a lot more complicated than she though it would be.
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The screenplay by Anita Loos (Gentleman Prefer Blondes) is based on a play by Rachel Crothers, but falters in that being a screen adaptation should have taken a little more tie with backstory. In order to allow the viewer to sympathize with this Susan Trexler character, we should have been given a little more insight to who Susan was before she took this trip to Europe. What we learn at the opening of the story is that her friends are anxiously awaiting her return and that Barrie has been drinking heavily, resulting in some drawing comedy hijinks near the beginning where Susan's friends work tirelessly to keep Barrie and Susan apart and we're not really sure why. We never really learn why Barrie has been drinking because the second he and Susan come face to face, all he wants to do is repair their marriage and be there for their daughter, despite our first glimpse of Barrie in the opening scene finds him stumbling out of a Broadway theater drunk.
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The most interesting aspect of this film was the highly theatrical performance of Joan Crawford in the starring role. Research revealed that this role was originally offered to Norma Shearer, who turned it down because she didn't want to play the daughter of a teenager. Honestly, as I watched, I kept picturing Katherine Hepburn in the role. This character is much more flighty and self-absorbed than the kind of character we're accustomed to seeing from Crawford. Crawford usually plays characters more interested in self-preservation than in helping others. Her initially treatment of her daughter borders on insensitive, keeping the poor child at arm's length until the final third of the film and even that doesn't last. The back and forth between Susan and Barrie does remain watchable because unlike most Crawford leading men, Barrie Trexel never allows himself to be emasculated by his wife.
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The film is nicely mounted in lovely black and white, featuring superior art direction by Cedric Gibbons and some gorgeous gowns for the ladies by the legendary Adrian. Crawford works hard to make Susan likable, but it's Fredric March's thunderous performance as Barrie that keeps the story interesting. Ruth Hussey, who earned an Oscar nomination the same year for The Philadelphia Story, shines as Susan's friend, Charlotte and there are also glimpses of a young Rita Hayworth and an early look at Marjorie Main, in one of her first wisecracking housekeeper roles. It's Joan Crawford, Fredric March, and George Cukor who made this worth watching. 3

[Gideon58]

Cyrano (2021)
The movie definitely has problems. but 2021's Cyrano is a sumptuously mounted, musical re-imagining of the Edmond Rostand play that is still worth watching thanks to the extraordinary performance by Peter Dinklage in the leading role. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who has never read or seen the play and has never seen the 1950 film version with Jose Ferrer, that won him an Oscar. My only exposure to this work is the 1987 comic reworking of the story called Roxanne starring Steve Martin.
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In this story, Cyrano (Dinklage) is a soldier and polished wordsmith who has always loved the lovely Roxanne (Hayley Bennett), but is too self-conscious to be direct with her because of his stature and the belief that he is ugly, though she considers Cyrano a close friend. Roxanne finds herself attracted to a soldier in Cyrano's regiment named Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr), who returns the attraction but his approach to romancing her is crude and boorish. Cyrano agrees to write a letter to Roxanne as Christian, a letter that captures Roxanne's heart so Cyrano and Christian decide to woo Roxanne together, through Christian's looks and Cyrano's words.
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First let me say that the concept of this film is quite good. I've always felt Cyrano De Bergerac was a story that would work quite well as a musical. Though a lot of the songs are quite pleasant, the score by Aaron and Dessner is rather lakluster. The songs don't flesh out characters or advance story. There was a song called "Heaven is Defenseless" centered on soldiers writing to their loved ones that was moving and, at the same time, brought the movie to a dead halt. Sadly, I think this film would have been much more effective without the songs.
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When director Joe Wright (Atonement) and screenwriter Erica Schmidt (the real life wife of Peter Dinklage) stick to the dramatic narrative, the film totally works. Loved Cyrano's opening scene in a theater when he reminds a hammy actor in a theater that he wrote him a couple of weeks ago telling him that he's a terrible actor and should stop was gold. The famous balcony scene, which is the hook upon which the story hangs, is heartachingly beautiful as is the scene where Christian comes to the realization that Roxanne loves Cyrano and not him.
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The primary reason this movie is worth watching is the gut-wrenching, delicately layered, and consistently surprising performance by Peter Dinklage. Once again, Dinklage proves to be an actor incapable of giving a bad performance. Watch him in the scene where he learns Roxanne is in love with Christian and not him or that wonderful balcony scene, or the climactic encounter with Roxanne where he's still trying to keep his love for Roxanne a secret. Dinklage gives us a Cyrano who loves Roxanne with every fiber of his soul, but still can't put two sentences together whenever he speaks to her directly. This is another one of those performances that should be studied by acting students.
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The film features breathtaking cinematography, art direction/set direction, and costumes, it's gorgeous to look at. Hayley Bennett completely invests in Roxanne, a character who is somewhat unsympathetic here. This Roxanne reminded me of Glenn Close' character in Dangerous Liaisons. Kelvin Harrison Jr makes a smoldering Christian and I loved Ben Mendelsohn a charismatic De Guiche. Remove the songs, and I would have added half a bag of popcorn to my rating, but even with the songs, Dinklage makes this movie worth watching...incredible performance. 3.5

[Gideon58]

The Kentucky Fried Movie
Fans of the 1980 comedy classic Airplane! might want to take a look at 1977's The Kentucky Fried Movie, a nonsensical, silly, and often raunchy collections of unrelated comedy skits that being somewhat dated, does still provide sporadic laughs.
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Long before Airplane! and The Naked Gun franchises, David Zuker, Jerry Zuker, and Jim Abrahams put together this random collection of comedy skits and movie parodies that are completely unrelated and play like an extended episode of SNL with no real connection between any of them, except for the thoughtfully executed sight gags that make up a lot of these guys' work.
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We get a pretty funny parody of a morning talk show being destroyed by an angry gorilla; a movie preview for a movie called Catholic High School Girls in Trouble and another one called Cleopatra Schwartz. Right in the middle of this we get an almost hour long Bruce Lee spoof called A Fistful of Yen that does provide some laughs, but doesn't really justify the hour of screen time it's granted.
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We get a couple of hints who made this film when, during a courtroom spoof, the stenographer is played by Stephen Stiucker, who played Johnny in the Airplane franchises and we meet a character named Rex Kramer. There are cameo appearances by Donald Suherland, Bill Bixby, Tony Dow, and David Zuker. It's not a home run, but there are laughs here. 3

[Gideon58]

The Guilty
Fans of the Tom Hardy film Locke will have a head start with 2021's The Guilty, a claustrophobic and squirm worthy crime drama about a man trying to save four lives while his own is falling apart.
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The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe Baylor, a police officer who has been demoted to a job as a 911 dispatch operator. The morning that we meet Joe, we watch him take a call from a distraught woman named Emily who sounds terrified of the man we hear in the background. It's not long before Joe figures out that this woman is being kidnapped and further investigation from Joe puts together that the man is her ex-husband, the father of her two children, and a convicted felon.
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As this is taking place, we also learn that Joe lost his job as a police officer because of some serious misconduct that has his partner prepared to lie for him and Joe due in court the next morning. We also learn that Joe has been separated from his wife for six months and she is trying to keep him away from his daughter. It is the eventual collision of this family kidnapping and Joe's personal life that make for the drama of criminal and personal dysfunction that unfolds in front of us.
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The Oscar-worthy screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto, the creative force behind True Detective is so delicately crafted because it seamlessly blends two tragic stories with rich backstory but provides said backstory in such meticulous fashion that we are almost halfway through the film before we know everything that is going on. As we are introduced to Joe in the bathroom using his asthma inhaler, we get the feeling we're about to see a story about a former cop who hates his new job and there is an element of that here, but there's so much more going on here. As Tom Hardy did in Locke, Gyllenhaal's character has the most time onscreen and the other major characters in the story we only hear on the phone,
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The introduction to the procedures for being a 911 operator were interesting to witness because some of said procedures initially impede what Joe is trying to do because he finds that a lot of the investigative techniques he knew as a cop were helpful to him, but were beyond his pay grade as a 911 operator and we feel his frustration. It was fascinating watching Joe trying to keep people on the phone when he needed to and, more importantly, have them hold the line when he needed them to. The scenes where Joe is trying to talk to Emily's daughter were heartbreaking.
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Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day provides tight direction that keeps the story moving, despite the claustrophobic atmosphere created by the setting. He gets solid assist from his editing and sound units. Jake Gyllenhaal provides the strongest performance I have seen from him since Nightcrawler that anchors this gut-wrenching story. Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawke, Eli Goree, Riley Keough, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph also effectively led their voices to other roles in the story. A tight and sometimes stomach-churning drama that wraps in a very tidy 90 minutes. 4

[MovieMeditation]

Have you seen the original version of The Guilty, Gideon?

[Gideon58]

Have you seen the original version of The Guilty, Gideon?

When I was originally looking for this film, I actually found the Sweden version first, but switched it off after about ten minutes when I realized it wasn't the film I was looking for. I will say when I started the Gyllenhaal version, the dialogue matched word for word. Since I enjoyed this film so much, I might check out the Sweden version at some point.

[MovieMeditation]

When I was originally looking for this film, I actually found the Sweden version first, but switched it off after about ten minutes when I realized it wasn't the film I was looking for. I will say when I started the Gyllenhaal version, the dialogue matched word for word. Since I enjoyed this film so much, I might check out the Sweden version at some point.
It hurts you call it Swedish when it is Danish. :(

But yeah, I would encourage you to check it out. I haven’t seen the remake personally, but I imagine it’s problematic seeing them the other way around. Cause now the original might look bad cause you already know the story.

But who knows. Give it a go some time. :up:

[Gideon58]

I'm sorry, I thought it was Swedish...one of the studios backing the film in the opening credits had :Sweden" in its title, so I thought it was Swedish, my bad.

[Gideon58]

Snow White (1937)
It has a place in cinematic history as the first feature length animated film released by Walt Disney Studios. Snow White is rich with innovation and imagination for a movie made in 1937. It might look a little creaky around the edges in 2022, but for a movie made 85 years ago, it still holds up as viable screen entertainment for the young and young at heart.
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Once upon a time, there was a wicked queen who banished her stepdaughter, Snow White, to the forest because she feared that the little girl would grow up to be prettier than she. She had no problem with Snow White's existence as long as her magic mirror reassured her on a daily basis that she was the fairest in the land. One day the mirror decides the queen must face the truth and tells her that Snow White is prettier. She sends a hunter to kill her but he can't do it and tells her to run. With the help of some familiar looking forest creatures, Snow White finds sanctuary in the home of seven dwarves who work in a gold mine and agree to keep Snow White safe as long as she cooks and cleans for them. When the Queen discovers our girl is still alive, she disguises herself as an ugly hag and decides to kill Snow White with a poison apple.
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Yes, this is where it all began for Disney and when you watch it now it becomes apparent pretty quickly that influence for a lot of future Disney characters started here...there is a deer and fawn who bear more than a passing resemblance to Bambi and his mom and a rabbit who looks like Thumper. You'll also see a pair of beavers who look a lot of Chip and Dale. Disney could have spent a little less time with the animals and a little more time with the conflict between between Snow and the Evil queen and the bonding of Snow with the dwarves, but I can forgive.
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The creation of the dwarves as seven separate characters contains a lot of attention to detail. Harpo Marx seems to be the inspiration for silent scene stealer Dopey and I was impressed with consistency of the characters throughout...Grumpy always seemed mad no matter how cheery the situation and how everything stopped when Sneezy felt a sneeze coming on...I had a feeling this was the
inspiration for Admiral Boo
M rocking the Banks home in Mary Poppins. The dwarves' cabin also features two great animated set pieces...love that pipe organ and that cuckoo clock.
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The songs were adorable...loved "I'm Wishing", "Whistle while you Work", "Someday My Prince Will Come", "Heigh Ho Heigh Ho", and "With a Smile and a Song."
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For a first time full length animated feature, the colors are splashy and appealing to the eye and something that I've noticed with my recent look into Disney work, is at least one touch into true darkness not for the intended demographic: I was shocked when the Queen demanded proof of Snow White's death by bringing Snow White's heart back to her in a box...Brrrr. It's a classic though and deserves the acclaim it's received over the years. 4

[SpelingError]

I should rewatch some of Disney's early animated films.

[Gideon58]

Annie Live (2021)
Someone decided it was a good idea to mount a live version of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie on NBC, despite three previous screen versions. A fourth version of this show should bring something new to the property, but this one doesn't.
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For anyone who's been living under a rock since 1977, this is the musical version of the classic comic strip character, an orphan who is convinced that her parents are still alive. Annie is chosen to spend the Christmas holidays with a billionaire named Oliver Warbucks, who becomes so attached to Annie he vows to find Annie's parents for her. Throw in the head of the orphanage, the evil Miss Hannigan, who wants her piece of the reward that Warbucks offers for Annie's parents to come forward.
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As mentioned, the Broadway musical premiered in 1977 starring Reid Shelton as Daddy Warbucks and Dorothy Loudon as Warbucks and Miss Hannigan. The first screen version was produced in 1982 with Albert Finney as Warbucks and Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan. Disney adapted the musical for television in 1999 with Victor Garber as Warbucks and Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan. Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz took the roles in the dreadful 2014 version, so what did this version have that sets it apart from the other versions? Truthfully, not much.
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Once again, director Alex Rudzinski, who also directed NBC's live versions of Rent and Jesus Christ Superstar, chose to film the piece in front of a live audience and, once again, I think it's a distracting detriment to the production because it implies that the director doesn't have enough confidence to let his work stand on his own and allow the television audience to decide what is worth laughter or applause. This live audience applauds everything...every time a dancer does a timestep or one of the orphans does a handless cartwheel, the audience bursts into applause. It's distracting.
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The score by Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse is intact. One song, "We'd Like to Thank You Hebert Hoover", which was cut from the other three versions, is restored here, but it's staged like a nightmare dream sequence and comes off kind of creepy. Two songs written especially for the 1982 movie "Sign" and "We've Got Annie" are added here with lackluster results. The music direction is actually lackluster overall. The singers seem to be battling the orchestra for the correct tempo for most of the musical numbers.
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Celina Smith is an acceptable Annie with a strong set of lungs, but Harry Connick Jr. phones it in as Daddy Warbucks, wearing a badly fitted baldcap and putting little effort into Warbuck's big solo "Something is Missing". Connick also appears to have difficulty remembering his lines. Taraji P Henson is ridiculously over the top as Miss Hannigan, ruining my favorite song in the score "Little Girls". The choreography by Sergio Trujillo is first rate, but the whole thing is directed with a sledgehammer style that makes a two hour musical seem like five. 2.5

[gbgoodies]

Have any of these live TV musicals been good?

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Have any of these live TV musicals been good?

I really liked The Wiz and Jesus Christ Superstar, but the rest were pretty bad, especially Grease.

[Gideon58]

Fletch
Chevy Chase had one of the biggest hits of his hit and miss movie career with a slick action comedy from 1985 called Fletch that offered a role that actually played to Chase's talent as well as an impressive supporting cast.
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Chase plays Irwin Fletcher, an investigative reporter who actually has a column which he writes under the name of "Jane Doe." While in the middle of an investigation of a drug ring which has him living as an undercover beach bum, he is about to expose the leader of this drug ring. Fletch is approached by a greasy millionaire named Alan Stanwyck who offers Fletch $50,000 so that his wife can collect the insurance money that becomes available upon his murder.
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Andrew Bergman, whose screenwriting credits include the original The In-Laws, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Soapdish, has provided a surprisingly smart story for Chase, which is actually two stories that are cleverly intertwined near the beginning of the story and then separate for most of the running time until they are impressively tied up before fadeout.
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Chase has been provided a character that is tailored made for his talents and also actually possessing a brain, something new for Chase. Fletch is a smart guy who never lets his enemies see him sweat and sees through the supposed allies who are trying to get over on him. This role also calls for chase to use dozens of costume and makeup changes, as well as several dialects to keep himself ahead in his double investigation. Every time the character introduces himself to someone during his investigation, he uses a different name and accent. There was actually one disguise in the film where, until the camera actually zoomed in on him, I didn't realize it was Chase.
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Veteran director Michael Ritchie (The Candidate, Prime Cut) provides a professional polish to the story's execution and keeps his star properly reined in. And if the electrical music score sounds familiar, it's because it's provided by Harold Faltermeyer, who provided a similar score for Beverly Hills Cop. Chase has a terrific supporting cast including Joe Don Baker, Richard Libertini, Tim Matheson, James Avery, Geena Davis, George Wendt, and M. Emmett Walsh. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a cameo from David W. Harper, who played Jim Bob on The Waltons. Nothing groundbreaking but a lot of fun. 3.5

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The Beta Test
Actor, writer, and director Jim Cummings, who made a strong impression with a squirm worthy 2018 film called Thunder Road, knocks it out of the park with a loopy and frightening look at office and sexual politics and social media's effect on same called The Beta Test that is so rich with so much cinematic panache that we're completely blown away by the incredible twist ending.
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Cumming co-directed and co-wrote this 2021 erotic thriller with PJ McCabe, who appears in the film as his BFF PJ. Cummings plays Jordan Hines, an arrogant Hollywood agent who is engaged to be married in six weeks. One day in the mail, he receives an elegant invitation to a no-strings-attached sexual romp with an anonymous woman. After some soul searching, he decides to meet the woman, leading to an evening of sexual debauchery unlike anything Jordan has experienced, where both he and she remained blindfolded. They meet for a second time but after that, the woman seems to disappear, which sends Jordan into a meltdown unlike anything seen before.
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Cummings is no stranger to squirm worthy cinema as anyone who has seen Thunder Road can attest. Cummings takes the squirm to a whole new level by creating a central character nothing like the character in Thunder Road. His character in that film had a pathetic aura
that evoked sympathy for him, but there is nothing pathetic about Jordan Hines...he is slick and self-absorbed and doesn't put anyone or anything above himself. He begins to imagine that every woman he crosses paths with might be this mystery woman and if he's not that thinking that, he keeps running into women he believes are part of his sexual history who never confirm or deny. Not to mention the brief scene of Hines filling out a form that came with the invitation that asks specific questions about his sexual proclivities.
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Cummings and McCabe paint this character in straight shades of black for most of the running time. Every time we see a window of sympathy for this guy, it quickly closes. There's a truly stomach churning moment with an assistant in his office where he thinks he misheard something his assistant said the day before and then confronts her about it the next day in front of the office. Jordan's treatment of women in this film put me in mind of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, but even more repugnant now because of the climate we're living in.
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Cummings and McCabe were provided a much bigger budget than Cummings was for Thunder Road, with standout art direction and film editing. With all the hats he was wearing, Cummings manages to deliver a mesmerizing performance in the starring role that had this reviewer invested from opening to closing credits. Not for all tastes, but startling and surprising entertainment for those who are game. 4

[gbgoodies]

I really liked The Wiz and Jesus Christ Superstar, but the rest were pretty bad, especially Grease.


I don't think I saw "The Wiz", but "Jesus Christ Superstar" was worth watching for John Legend.

I don't know why I keep watching these live musical events. Most of them have been pretty bad, but I keep hoping they'll get better.

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The Reluctant Debutante
Stylish direction by Vincente Minnelli and sparkling performances by the stars make a 1958 drawing room comedy called The Reluctant Debutante appointment viewing for classic cinema purists.
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Lord Jimmy Broadbent (Rex Harrison) and his second wife, Lady Sheila (Kay Kendall) are thrilled when Jimmy's daughter, Jane (Sandra Dee) arrives for a visit from America where she lives with her mother and Sheila is encouraged by her best friend, Mabel (Angela Lansbury) to get Jane involved in the upcoming debutante season. Debutante season is a series of formal balls where young women on the precipice of adulthood are presented to London society as suitable husband material. Despite Jane's complete lack of interest in such nonsense, Sheila decides that a stuffy guard from Buckingham palace named David Fenner would be the perfect suitor for Jane, but Jane meets a handsome musician at the first ball named David Parkson (John Saxon) and they fall in love at first sight. Mabel quickly informs Sheila of a rumor about Parkson's inappropriate behavior with another young lady which sends Sheila on a mission to keep Jane and Parkson apart.
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William Douglas-Home adapted the screenplay from his own play, which seems to have a very Noel Coward influence to it...a lot of British stiff upper lips doing silly things for the sake of appearance and propriety, even if it means listening at keyholes, running in and out of slamming doors, and doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons. The whole debutante ball thing is definitely dated but there were a couple of things about the story I found refreshing. When it is established that Sheila is Jane's stepmother and not her real mother, an immediate animosity between the two characters is expected but we don't get that at all. Sheila and Jane adore each other and it sort of explains why Jane quietly goes along with Sheila's machinations as long as she does.
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I also loved the fact that two major plot twists were centered around the telephone...Mabel purposely gives Sheila an incorrect phone number at one point and Sheila ends up utilizing that number at just the wrong time to complicate the plot even further. I also loved that Sheila is at the bottom of most of the hysteria in this comedy, though her interference comes from the very best of places. I loved that a point comes where Jimmy and Jane realize this and instead of blaming her, just want to protect her.
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This movie was a delight from start to finish, set against a stunning canvas featuring Oscar-worthy art direction and some drop dead gorgeous costumes for the ladies. Rex Harrison effectively underplays as Jimmy and Sandra Dee actually does the strongest work of her career as Jane. Angela Lansbury does her accustomed scene stealing and John Saxon makes a smoldering David Parkson. Towering above them all is the luminous Kay Kendall, in an enchanting and masterful comic performance as Sheila that completely anchors this comedy. The previous year, Kendall had stolen Les Girls from Gene Kelly and would make one more film after this one before her tragic passing. This film is worth watching for Kendall's performance alone. but there's a lot more going on here. 4

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Spider-Man: No Way Home
Marvel movie fans will be in heaven as the Spider-Man franchise is gloriously brought full circle in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, a spectacular epic adventure bringing primary elements of a cinematic dynasty together bringing them to a place where it is uncertain whether we've been brought to an ending or a new beginning.
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After an encounter with a villain named Mysterio, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has found his life forever changed because the entire world now knows that he is Spiderman. When he realizes that this revelation has not only made him a social pariah, but has practically destroyed the lives of girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and BFF Ned (Jacob Batalon). Peter goes to Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks if he can cast some kind of spell that will only allow a few select people to know about his alter ego. Unfortunately, the spell goes terribly wrong and finds Peter having to do battle with villains from other Spiderman universes (translation: other Spiderman movies).
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The screenwriters from the last two Spiderman movies have constructed a near brilliant homage to all of the films in the series that defies logic at every turn and shoves very hard against the 4th wall without ever knocking it down. The mounting of this story required referencing seven movies and simultaneously producing a new story that didn't just rehash the previous seven movies. Full disclosure, I did miss one of the previous seven movies, which may explain my confusion about certain plot points, but as villains from the movies I had seen kept popping up, I was riveted as memories of these other movies flooded my head.
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I was fascinated as Doc Ock, Electra, The Lizard, Sandman, and especially Norman Osborn/Green Goblin showed up in this Spiderman's universe and had no idea who this guy was. Further delight is provided when MJ and Ned go looking for help for their Peter and find help in Tobey Maguire Peter and Andrew Garfield Peter. LOVED the scene before the climactic showdown where the three Peters sit down and compare notes about their pwoers (which are not identical) and the villians they've battled in the past.
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Jon Watts who directed the last two films in the series, puts a lot of care and detail into the scope of this story and where it takes the viewers. Loved that the finale took place on the scaffold-surrounded Statue of Liberty. It goes without saying that production values were flawless for the most part. Loved the updating of the Spiderman costume. Tom Holland brings a goofy sweetness to Peter Parker and loved Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. It was so great to see Alfred Molina and especially Willem Dafoe return to their roles, as it was to see Maguire and Garfield. What I loved most about this movie is where it brought us to as the credits rolled...it didn't set up a another movie, but it didn't end either...I liked that. 4.5

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Three For the Show
Columbia Pictures goes the MGM route providing middling results in an oddball 1955 musical called Three For the Show which suffers from a dumb story, some strange musical numbers, and an attempt to turn the leading lady into something she wasn't.
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The film stars Betty Grable as Julie, a Broadway star who married a songwriter named Marty (Jack Lemmon) who she thought died in the Korean War and eventually married Marty's songwriting partner, Vernon (Gower Champion). Two years later, Marty turns up very much alive and, instead of deciding which husband she wants to keep, keeps both guys jumping through hoops competing for her affection since she has decided that she is not acquainted with the term bigamy and that she is legally married to both men. Throw in the mix a Broadway producer (Myron McCormick) who wants the guys to reunite and a chorus girl named Gwen (Marge Champion) waiting for Julie to dump one of the guys so she can have the other and doesn't care which one.
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This musical is actually a remake of a 1940 film called Too Many Husbands and reminded me of another movie called Tom Dick and Harry featuring a story about a manufactured romantic triangle that the apex of the triangle doesn't want to resolve. The way Julie treats Marty and Vernon is just like in Tom, Dick, and Harry when three guys propose to Ginger Rogers and she accepts all three proposals. It's not so much the fact that Julie is leading these two guys around by the nose, but that they actually put up with it for about two thirds of the running time.
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The other problem is that director HC Potter and choreographer Jack Cole (and yes they both share the blame) are trying turn Grable into something she isn't. The role of Julie was clearly styled for Marilyn Monroe or they were trying to turn Grable into Monroe, a task that Grable wasn't up to as she was almost 40 years old when this film was made and her discomfort with this role is clear throughout and it's easy to see why Grable would only make one more film before retiring.
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The musical numbers are bizarre and just seem to pad running time. Grable's harem styled production number and Marge Champion's bizarre Phantom of the Opera style numbers just defy logic. Marge Champion is given a song early on that was only about 16 bars long...what was the point? Did enjoy Grable's take on "I've Got a Crush on You" and Marge and Gower's final pas de deux.
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Columbia Pictures spared no expense in putting this film together that features breathtaking settings and costumes, but this money could have spent more money on a more realistic script. Jack Lemmon works very hard pretending to be Gene Kelly and another attempt to prove that the Champions could act turns out to be futile. Marge's role is a particular embarrassment. A silly and lumbering musical that was a very long 90 minutes. 2.5

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House of Gucci
The meandering screenplay makes it about 40 minutes too long, but 2021's House of Gucci is still a sumptuously mounted docudrama centered around the family behind one of fashion's premiere families that is more than watchable thanks to stunning production values, rich direction from a proven commodity and some eye-opening performances from an impressive all-star cast.
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This is the story of Patrizia Reggiani (Lady GaGa), the manipulative and ambitious daughter of the owner of a small trucking company, who marries into the famous Gucci family through the weak-willed heir, Maurizio (Adam Driver) and using him as a conduit to becoming a power player at Gucci, but before her plan is completed, Maurizio sees through the woman and does whatever he can to keep the Gucci throne in the family and not through marriage.
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Even though this film is set around a real life fashion empire, this film totally plays like a mob drama, minus all the blood-curdling violence we expect from the genre. Honestly, only one central character is murdered during the running time. But the mob sensibility and the mob attitudes toward family come shining through here. Early on there was an impressive twist I didn't see coming where Maurizio has a fight with his father (Oscar winner Jeremy Irons) and believing he's been cut off, goes to Patrizia's father and asks him for a job (one of Driver's best scenes). That would have been such an interesting way for this story to go, but it ends up going the more traditional route as Patrizia gets dollar signs in her eyes and forces Maurizio to reconcile with his family.
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And let's talk about this Patrizia...one of the most frightening characters I have seen in a movie in a long time. She is articulate, self-centered, and always knows exactly what she's doing...love the scene where she announces to Maurizio that she's pregnant, because you can tell there is no great desire to be a mother here...she knows at some point that she will need a bargaining chip at some point to cement her place as a Gucci.
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In addition to Maurizio, we have two other Gucci patriarchs also embroiled in a personal and professional power struggle, Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino) and Paolo (Jared Leto), who eventually ending up on their knees to Lady Patrizia.
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Director Ridley Scott paints this epic story on an eye-popping canvas that is hard to resist, I just wish he had collaborated with the screenwriters on tightening the screenplay. As for the performances, Lady GaGa proves she doesn't need music to command a movie screen. Her performance is ferocious and electrifying and just might win her the Best Actress Oscar she didn't win for A Star is Born. Driver is Oscar-worthy in what appears on the surface to be a thankless role, but Driver finds Maurizio's layers. And cinema's current greatest chameleon, Oscar winner Leto, unrecognizable in a makeup job that will probably win this film the makeup Oscar, has once again topped himself with a crisp and detailed performance that could win him a second Oscar. it's an entertaining film that eventually succumbs to its overlength. 3.5

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Madonna Rebel Heart Tour
After my first viewing of Madonna: Truth or Dare a few months ago, I decided it was time to re-visit the Diva 24 years later in Madonna Rebel Heart Tour, a splashy, eye-popping, imaginative, sexy, and undeniably entertaining concert film that is not just a concert film...it's theater, live musical theater at its best.
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A couple of things before getting into details. It's pretty obvious about ten minutes into this film that Madonna is not singing live for the majority of this concert, which is supposedly a compilation of appearances all over the world, but we are able to forgive because there is so much going on here that the fact that she's not singing live becomes irrelevant pretty quickly. I'd also like to mention a kinship I have always felt to the Queen of Pop because she was born the same year as I was and is only eight months younger than me. At the time this 2016 concert tour was filmed, Madonna was 58 years old.
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What I loved about this concert is that it's not just Madonna coming onstage and regurgitating her biggest hits. Each number has been given a fresh concept by Madonna and co-choreographer Megan Lawson, giving each number fresh life and a new dramatic concept. Just about every number is not just a song performance, it's like a one-act play and the presentation is carefully calculated...there are some numbers where Madonna is not onstage but only on the audio as her dancers, the band, and the stage crew provide the story onstage.
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As she has always done, Madonna challenges sexual and religious mores in a lot of the performances. The song "Holy Water" is an erotic re-imagining of the Last Supper that flawlessly segues into "Vogue". "Bitch, I'm Madonna" features Madonna getting familiar with her female dancers while they perform acrobatics on stripper poles. "Body Shop" finds our girl and her dancers cavorting around an auto mechanic's garage and "Heartbreak City" is a striking ballad performed by Madonna and a male dancer on a spiral staircase. And my favorite was a song called "S.E.X". which featured Madonna on audio while onstage we were treated to four dancer couples, two straight and two gay, cavorting on brass beds that was a total eye opener. Her re-thinking of "Music" resulted in a sexy 1930's nightclub setting. Every song tells a story.
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Madonna also manages to bring freshness to some of her older hit. She actually plays the guitar on her first big dance hit "I'm Burning Up" and fresh arrangements have been provided for "Like a Virgin", "Material Girl", and "Holiday." And just when you think you've seen everything, she does a number called "Unapologetic Bitch" which features cameo appearances from Idris Elba, Katy Perry, Amy Shumer, Lil Buck, Jessica Chastain, and Anderson Cooper among others.
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Loved the shots of the audience provided as well. As expected, every audience shot proved that everyone present knew every word of every one of her songs. We were also treated to plenty of shots of gay and lesbian couples embracing and kissing each other, inspired by the uninhibited Queen of Pop onstage. In my reviews of films that I thought were too long, I have often mentioned that I spent a lot of the running time checking my watch. When this was over, I was ready for another hour and a half. 4.5

[KeyserCorleone]

Had to fly past the "twist ending" paragraph, but House of Gucci is very high on my to-do list. I get a feeling that it may end up being a cult classic with possible re-evaluation in the future, much like Kate Bush's The Dreaming did. But I haven't seen the movie so I could be very wrong. But everything I know about the movie just gives off that aura.

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife
My fears that revisiting this franchise was implausible were quickly vanquished as I found myself completely dazzled by a return to a franchise that first came to the screen 37 years ago. 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a dark and often frightening return to the story that first came to the screen in 1984 with a story darker in tone but completely respecting its origins while providing an undeniably fresh and exciting story.
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As the film opens a single mom named Callie, her 15 year old son Trevor and her 12 year old daughter Phoebe have been evicted from their home and travel to a one horse town named Somerville, Oklahoma to move into an old farmhouse that was left to them by Callie's father. It's long before clues lead us to the revelation that Callie, Trevor, and Phoebe are the daughter and grandchildren of Egon Spengler (portrayed by the late Harold Ramis in the first two films) and that Spengler has left a very special legacy for his family that puts them in the same kind of danger that Egon and his partners faced in '84.
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The lion's share of the credit for why this film totally works has to go to Oscar-nominated director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno). And I have to say that I would have been really upset if anyone but Reitman had been in the director's chair on this one since the original film was directed by his father, Ivan Reitman. Reitman. Dan Aykroyd, and Gil Kenan have crafted a beautifully layered screenplay that has been lifted from its 1984 roots and creating a story that isn't a rehash of the first one, but a new story faithfully created from the original. The film doesn't just re-assemble the original cast and send them on a new adventure. It respects the facts that 37 years have passed and introduces us to new characters who find themselves wrapped up in a legacy they knew nothing about. Loved the way the events of the first film are only introduced through You Tube Videos.
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Reitman provides a wonderful realism to the story in that the three members of Egon's family are brought into the story at different levels of interest and acceptance of their family legacy. As they arrive in Somerville, Callie has no interest in what her father did or why the Somerville citizens referred to him as "The Dirt Farmer." However, we watch young Phoebe embrace her grandfather's memory and as she does, her methodical discovery of all the most famous set pieces from the first film. Trevor's interest is somewhere in the middle until he discovers Ecto-!, the guys' original vehicle, wrapped in a cover in a barn and decides to get it going.
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Director Reitman puts a lot of detail into incorporating all of the most famous demons from the first film without just duplicating what we saw in 1984. We meet the monster that chased Rick Moranis through the streets of Manhattan and a green creature named Muncher, not to mention the gatekeeper and the keymaster. The StayPuft Mashmellow Man even returns in this story, but it's nothing like his appearance in the first film. In bringing these creatures back to the story, Reitman even creates knowing winks to other sci-fi classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, and Gremlins. The final showdown is a little longer than need be, but I was able to forgive
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Carrie Coon brings a believable cynicism to Callie and works well with Paul Rudd as the teacher Grooberson, but the star-making performance of McKenna Grace is the standout. Reitman also manages to get cameo appearances from Annie Potts, Sigorney Weaver, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and yes, Harold Ramis (don't ask). One of the best sequels I've seen in a long time. 4

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Duets
Karaoke and the passion it instills in barflies all over the country is the hook for a 2000 drama with music called Duets, which has a solid musical moment here and there, but for the most part, provides lackluster entertainment.
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This film has multiple storylines, not all intersecting that introduces characters like a karaoke hustler (Huey Lewis) and his long-lost daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow); a traveling theme park salesman (Paul Giamatti); an actual would-be singer (Maria Bello) ; and a thief/conman (Andre Braugher).
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John Bynum's screenplay does set up an interesting array of characters, most of whom appear like karaoke would be the last thing that would interest them and I guess that was the point. Appeal for the story would probably be amped for people who are into karaoke, but I'm not sure. I liked the fact that most of the actors cast in the film aren't known as singers but it really didn't make the film anymore interesting.
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Director Bruce Paltrow (father of Gwyneth), who is primarily known as a television director, doesn't put a lot of imagination into his direction. The movie lumbers at a deadening pace, making the movie a lot longer than it really is.
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There are a few musical highlight including Lewis' take on Joe Cocker's "Feeling Allright:, Maria Bello singing "Sweet Dreams", and Giamatti and Braugher's duet "Try a Little Tenderness" (though Braugher doesn't do his own singing). The performances are nothing to write home about, though I do think Lewis stole every scene he was in and I loved Marian Seldes' cameo as Scott Speadman's passenger in his cab. 2

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CODA
Sian Heder is the creative force behind a warm and emotionally charged cinematic experience called CODA, a 2021 Apple original that focuses on a very special family and the circumstances that try to tear them apart.
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This is the story of Ruby Rossi, who is a CODA, an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults. Ruby is the only hearing member of her family. Her mother, father, and brother are all deaf and operate a small fishing business with Ruby's help. Ruby has always been completely devoted to her family's business, lending her hearing when necessary. Ruby finds herself torn when she joins the choir at school and finds a deeply-rooted passion for music that she never knew about or had buried. The choir director recognizes her talent and passion and thinks she has the talent to get into Berkley; however, her family is trying to take their business to a new level and can't do it without Ruby.
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Sian Heder takes a truly creative leap with this story because three of the principals are def and mute and only communicate through sign language. Yes, Helen Keller was deaf and mute in The Miracle Worker, but she was the only character with the handicap. In this story, Ruby has to bring us into the story and she does as much as she can. Yes, there are large portions of the story where we're not exactly sure what's going on, but we always feel the emotion behind it. We find ourselves involved as we watch Ruby's family's emotions through their eyes and the power that they employ behind their signing.
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Just as important as trying to understand what Ruby's family is feeling is feeling the conflict within Ruby as she not only has to deal with her passion for music being stilted, but has to deal with the bigotry the Rossi family must face, which interferes with a possible romance for our heroine. The amazing part of this complicated story is that Ruby rarely makes a wrong move, leading us to the final third of the film, which had me seriously fighting tears.
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Marlee Matlin, the first hearing-impaired actor to ever win an Oscar for 1987's Children of a Lesser God, is absolutely luminous as Ruby's mother. I especially loved that scene near the end where she has just bought Ruby a new dress. Daniel Durant is explosive as Ruby's brother Leo and Troy Kotsur is Oscar-worthy as Ruby's Dad, commanding the screen without a word every time the camera came near him. And Emilia Jones lights up the screen as Ruby, a performance of warmth and power that makes us fall in love with the character. She also possesses an impressive set of pipes that provide a lovely tribute to Joni Mitchell. Cinematography and sound are icing on this powerhouse cinematic cake. 4.5

[Wyldesyde19]

CODA
Sian Heder is the creative force behind a warm and emotionally charged cinematic experience called CODA, a 2021 Apple original that focuses on a very special family and the circumstances that try to tear them apart.
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This is the story of Ruby Rossi, who is a CODA, an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults. Ruby is the only hearing member of her family. Her mother, father, and brother are all deaf and operate a small fishing business with Ruby's help. Ruby has always been completely devoted to her family's business, lending her hearing when necessary. Ruby finds herself torn when she joins the choir at school and finds a deeply-rooted passion for music that she never knew about or had buried. The choir director recognizes her talent and passion and thinks she has the talent to get into Berkley; however, her family is trying to take their business to a new level and can't do it without Ruby.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/coda-movie-review-2021/Coda-movie-review-2021.jpg
Sian Heder takes a truly creative leap with this story because three of the principals are def and mute and only communicate through sign language. Yes, Helen Keller was deaf and mute in The Miracle Worker, but she was the only character with the handicap. In this story, Ruby has to bring us into the story and she does as much as she can. Yes, there are large portions of the story where we're not exactly sure what's going, but we always feel the emotion behind it. We find ourselves involved as we watch Ruby's family's emotions through their eyes and the power that they employ behind their signing.
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Just as important a trying to understand what Ruby's family is feeling is feeling the conflict within Ruby as she not only has to deal with her passion for music being stilted, but has to deal with the bigotry the Rossi family must face, which interferes with a possible romance for our heroine. The amazing part of this complicated story is that Ruby rarely makes a wrong move, leading us to the final third of the film, which had me seriously fighting tears.
https://rogermooresmovienation.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/coda6.jpg
Marlee Matlin, the first hearing-impaired actor to ever win an Oscar for 1987's Children of a Lesser God, is absolutely luminous as Ruby's mother. I especially loved that scene near the end where she has just bought Ruby a new dress. Daniel Durant is explosive as Ruby's brother Leo and Troy Kotsur is Oscar-worthy as Ruby's Dad, commanding the screen without a word every time the camera came near him. And Emilia Jones lights up the screen as Ruby, a performance of warmth and power that makes us fall in love with the character. She also possesses an impressive set of pipes that provide a lovely tribute to Joni Mitchell. Cinematography and sound are icing on this powerhouse cinematic cake. 4.5

I knew you would enjoy this film. One of the best films from last year.

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I loved it...spent the last 40 minutes of it trying not to cry.

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Spencer
Despite lavish production values, meticulous direction, and the Oscar-nominated performance by Kristen Stewart in the starring role, 2021's Spencer is a disturbing film experience that provides a laid bare look at a historical icon that we don't want to believe is true, though it did have me riveted to the screen.
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It's ten years after Diana Spencer married Prince Charles and their marriage is dead in the water. As this bizarre story begins, Diana is observed driving alone to the royal family's country estate for the Christmas Holidays, where she intends to end her marriage to Charles, but her agenda is derailed when we are privy to what appear some mental health issues.
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Steven Knight, who received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things, has provided us with a story that strays beyond fact and into speculation, as it only could, allowing uncomfortable looks into private moments with the Princess, like the Helen Mirren film The Queen. Before she arrives at the estate, we watch Diana cross a muddy field to remove a coat from a scarecrow that she claimed belonged to her father. Before the closing credits roll, we learn that Diana is being haunted by the ghost of Anne Boelyn, that she likes to dress in front of her open window, and that she has experimented with self-mutilation.
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In my review of the Nicole Kidman film Grace of Monaco, I stated that Grace Kelly might have felt trapped in her new princess clothes. This is the initial look we get at Diana here, but it goes to a much deeper, uglier level here. We watch her rebel as it's revealed that her clothes have been pre-selected for every family gathering. She refuses to join the family for Christmas Eve dessert, but later sneaks into the freezer holding the desserts and samples just about everything in there. There is a moment where she asks her maid lo leave her alone and the explanation she offered made my jaw drop. Most important of all, Diana is warned by more than one character in the movie that she is being watched at all times. Of course, she doesn't believe it, but as the film progresses, it appears to be true.
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Director Pablo Larrain, who also directed Natalie Portman to an Oscar nomination in Jackie employs a stylish and intrusive look at Diana through several different methods that allow the camera to tell equal parts of the story. There's an extraordinary scene that has the family exiting Church after the Christmas Day service, where the camera delicately moves between Diana, Charles, and Camilla Parker Bowles that speaks volumes.
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Production values are flawless, with a shout out to cinematography, costumes, and art direction/set direction. Kristen Stewart's eye-opening performance in the starring role fascinates throughout and mention must also be made of Timothy Spall as the head of royal family security and two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins as Diana's favorite maid, Maggie. It's dark and sad and hard to believe at times, but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. 3.5

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Clean
Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) serves as the co-producer, co-screenwriter, and star of 2020's Clean, a somber character study that starts off promisingly but then degenerates into a standard tale of violence and revenge that becomes too bloody and nonsensical for the viewer to completely engage.
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Brody plays the title character, a small-town garbageman who attends NA meetings and is trying to salvage a relationship with a teenage girl he loves like a daughter. Clean struggles with staying sober and trying to get past the demons of his past until said demons rear their ugly head and demand vengeance.
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The screenplay by Brody and director Paul Solet starts off quite effectively as sort of an homage to the 1976 classic Taxi Driver, zeroing in on this loner Clean, stuck in a dead end job that he hates but seems to accept as his payback for his past, quietly screaming on the inside as violence visions of his past don't allow him to sleep. If the truth be told, the film was a lot more interesting when the effectively edited visions of Clean's past remained that way, inside his head. Once we learn that the people and places who made up Clean's past are still a part of his present existence. this is where the film begins to lose us.
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Unfortunately, Clean's past comes to fruition as a dangerous group of drug dealers who use a fishing business as a front. Their appearance comes with a lot of squirm-worthy and unrelenting violence that often turned the stomach and did little to advance the story. The scene of psycho Michael violently chopping fish with an axe while their blood covered his face went on way too long. Ditto the scene of Michael leaving a church service which led to a scene of the preacher reading the scripture while we were treated to video of Michael and his boys packaging heroine.
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Brody's performance is solid though and is a nice reminder what a powerhouse actor he is, but the subject matter is such a downer and though it does seem to be an homage to Taxi Driver, without Martin Scorsese behind the camera, the homage gets lost and really hard to appreciate. 2.5

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Nightmare Alley (2021)
The creative force behind the Oscar-winning Best Picture, The Shape of Water, has mounted another Best Picture nominee with his re-imagining of Nightmare Alley, a l the moody and grisly Hitchcockian-type noir thriller that doesn't answer all the questions it creates, but rivets the viewer with the chilling atmosphere created and first-rate performances by a remarkable cast.
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This film is a remake of a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, which I've never seen, but I'm pretty sure this version goes places that the 1947 film didn't. Stanhope Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a slick carny with a knack for manipulating people, who joins a carnival where he immediately learns the basics of phony mentalism from a phony psychic (Toni Collette) and her husband (David Straithairn). After learning what he can he leaves the carnival with an attraction called the Electric Girl (Rooney Mara) and begins his own career as a mentalist, where he hooks up with an icy psychiatrist named Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) and begins a dangerous sting operation with her.
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As he did with The Shape of Water, Guillermo Del Toro and his co-screenwriters create a bone-chilling atmosphere for this story that plays like a dream from the opening scenes. The atmosphere created for the carnival was especially squirm-worthy. A circus or carnival setting is normally associated with fun and entertainment and we definitely don't get that here. The carnival atmosphere created here is based on conning and frightening the customers, not entertaining them. What was more frightening was the way Stan slipped into it easily. Loved when the carnival manager, deliciously played by Willem Dafoe, that the carnival is a really good place for people who are running or hiding from something.
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There's a bit of confusion after Stan leaves the circus because it appears that Stan goes from being phony mentalist to having some kind of psychic powers and that's never really explained. When he first meets Dr. Ritter, he is asked to identify the contents of her handbag and correctly pronounces she has a gun in it, which is never explained for this viewer's satisfaction. But I let it go as the pairing of Stan and Dr. Ritter, results in some unspeakable violence and the death of three people. And the deeper Stan goes into his off-again on-again mentalism, his moral barometer plunges to the point where we can't believe this is the same guy at the beginning of the movie, who was no prize himself.
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Del Toro has mounted this story on a chilling but handsome canvas that has also earned the film Oscar nominations for Production design, costumes, and cinematography. Bradley Cooper gives the performances of his career and Blachett is positively bone-chilling as Dr. Ritter. It's an often ugly story, but totally mesmerizing. 4

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Who was that Lady?
Despite charming performances from the three stars, the 1960 comedy Who was that Lady? suffers from an overly complex story and leaden direction which makes the film seem five hours long..
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Tony Curtis plays Dr. David Wilson, a chemistry professor at Columbia University who gets caught by his wife, Ann (Janet Leigh) kissing another woman. David begs his BFF Mike Haney (Dean Martin), a writer for CBS, to help him come up with a story that Ann will believe because she asked him get his things out of the house and has bought a train ticket to Reno. Mike suggests that David tell Ann that he's an FBI agent and that kissing this woman was part of an assignment. Mike has fake ID made up for him and David that convinces Ann to the point that she's telling anyone who will listen what a hero her husband is. Unfortunately, real FBI Agent (James Whitmore) gets wind of what Mike and David are doing and it's not long before they're in trouble with the FBI, the CIA, and even the KGB.
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The very talky screenplay by Norman Krasna, based on his own Broadway play, starts off promisingly as Mike and David come up with a solution to David's problem, but it could have been done a lot more economically. I did love when Mike decided Ann's accepting their story gave him and David to license to cheat, but once all the government agencies find out about what David and Mike are doing the movie does become less interesting. Not to mention the fact that this whole story makes the Ann character look dumb as a box of rocks.
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If the truth be told, the story had the feel of a screenplay that was originally intended for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis that got discarded once thy broke up. I kept picturing Lewis in Curtis' role the entire running time, but the chemistry he had with rea life spouse at the time, Leigh, kind of made up for that. According to the iMDB, this film was the inspiration for True Lies, the film starring Curtis and Leigh's real life daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis.
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Martin gives one of his breeziest performances and some familiar faces do pop up along the way including John McIntire, the Fabulous Barbara Nichols, Simon Oakland, and Larry Storch. It's longer than it needs to be, but the stars make it worth a look. 3

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Scream (2022)
The 2022 film version of Scream is a grizzly and suspenseful "Requel" to Wes Craven's 1996 masterpiece that not only respects the original film, but provides 21st century sensibilities to a story that we thought had been told, but has legitimized the possibility of a new series of films thanks to likable new characters who make realistic connections to the legacy characters of the original franchise. Will attempt to review this without spoilers.
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The film opens with a nearly flawless recreation of the opening of the 1996 film with Drew Barrymore where a a young girl named Tara is forced into trying to protect her BFF from dying through a trivia quiz over the phone with a killer. Somehow, this girl survives and not long after her arrival at the hospital, it is revealed that Tara is the younger sister of Sam, who it is revealed is the illegitimate daughter of Billy Loomis, one of the killers in the original film.
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Credit is due to James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick's near brilliant homage to Kevin Williamson's screenplay which introduces new characters to a 25 year old canvas and provides immediate connections to the original story without recreating it in order to make a connection to this story. The story still has that same combination of tongue in cheek comedy and breaking of the 4th wall that the original film did. That delicious comedy of breaking all the accepted rules of slasher films, while explaining said rules right before they break them. The opening scene with Tara is a brilliant example...it plays so much like the famous Drew Barrymore scene, but is given fresh life thanks to the fact that Tara is now on a cell phone.
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As for co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, they also have apparently put a lot of study into Craven's original film, providing this film, not only with some undeniably stomach churning violence, but with some unparalleled, spine-tingling suspense, like Hitchcock-calibre suspense that I haven't seen in ages. Love the detail put into the depiction of a character we just know is going to be a victim, as he steps into a shower. We are given at least five false starts wondering what's going to happen to him. As a matter of fact, when the killer is asking the guy's mother if she's ever seen Psycho, we then see the shower head come on and I swear that shot of the shower head is the same one utilized in Pyscho. The director's attention to the effect the first franchise had on the legacy characters is also on the money...our reintroduction to Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette), is absolutely heartbreaking.
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And if you're wondering about the term "Requel", just watch the film. It is explained during the running time to complate satisfaction. In addition to Arquette, we are also are revisited by Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and Skeet Ulrich. There are a couple of smart turns by Melissa Barrera and Jack Quaid as Sam and Richie, that are surprisingly effective anchors to the story. Didn't think this could be pulled off, but it was. 4

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The Sky's The Limit
One of Fred Astaire's breeziest performances makes the 1943 film The Sky's the Limit seem a little better than it really is, but still worth a look for Astaire fans.
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The RKO film stars Astaire as Fred Atwell, a member of an elite WWII flying corp called The Flying Tigers, who has been assigned to a publicity tour during his ten days leave. A restless Atwell goes AWOL from the tour and finds himself in Manhattan where is immediately attracted to a former singer turned magazine photographer named Joan Manion (Joan Leslie), who is attracted to Atwell, but is turned off by the fact that Atwell pretends he has no interest in working.
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Needless to say, this film was one of RKO's salute to the war effort, something that all movie studios were doing at the time, so that's why Astaire's character is a pilot and it seems like the screenplay is going to forget that at some point, but it doesn't. Things get complicated for Atwell when two of his fellow flyboys track him down at one point, but our boy does manage to keep them at bay long enough to continue his pursuit of Joan.
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If you're looking for a typical Astaire musical here, you will be disappointed. The story is center stage here and only allows Astaire three opportunities to hit the dance floor. Two are with Leslie, one to the tune of the Oscar-nominated song "Our Shining Hour", which are fine, but Astaire has definitely simplified the choreography due to Leslie's limited dance skills. His final dance solo to the tune of the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer classic "One for My Baby (and One More For the Road)" finds our boy tapping atop a bar with about 500 champagne glasses behind him and we can't wait to see how they are going to be destroyed.
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Astaire is terrific, but Leslie's one-note performance as his leading lady really weighs this one down. One gets the feeling that this film might have been planned as a vehicle for Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but Rogers had gone solo with her career three years earlier. There is a surprising appearance from future movie icon Robert Ryan as one of Atwell's buddies, but Fred does his best to hold this one together. 3

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Parallel Mothers
Oscar winners Pedro Almadovar and Penelope Cruz pair up again for a stylish and emotionally charged soap opera called Parallel Mothers that provides compelling entertainment for most of its running time but takes just a tad too long to wrap things up.
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This is the story of two women who meet in the hospital after giving birth on the same day in 2016 Madrid: Janis is a 40 year old fashion photographer who has a one night stand with a handsome archeologist and finds herself pregnant with no one but her BFF/boss as a support system; Ana is the spoiled and selfish teenager of a struggling actress who is touring Spain with a new play. Janis and Ana are strangers who have nothing in common but new children. They bond in the hospital and continue to communicate with each other after they are released, but a shocking revelation is revealed at the beginning of the second third of the film that bonds these women together and changes their lives forever.
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On the surface, Almavador's screenplay is soap opera at its purest form, but he allows the story to unfold slowly enough that we don't see it right away. As a matter of fact the first ten-fifteen minutes of the screenplay is exposition involving Cruz' character wanting to hire the archeologist (named Arturo) for a dig that involves several generations of Janis' family and initially, it seems like this is what the film is going to be about. This turns out to be one big red herring as a bombshell dropped at the second third of the film, that we don't see coming at all, actually reveals what this story is going to be.
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Even with this reveal, we're still navigating some pretty murky cinematic waters as there is some very questionable behavior from the Janis character that really had this reviewer scratching his head, but eventually denial seemed to explain her behavior away and we are pleasantly surprised by the way she plays the rest of it out. Unfortunately, we lose interest near the end where Janis and Arturo take us back to the dig, but honestly, be the time this re-addressed, we really don't care.
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Almavodar's direction is delicate and Cruz' rich Janis has earned her a fourth Oscar nomination. Also loved the sexy Israel Elejalde as Arturo, Melina Smit as Ana, and Rossy de Palma as Ana's mother. it's pretty sophisticated entertainment for the majority of its running time. 4