Gideon58's Reviews [Archive] - Page 18

Gideon58

11-21-22, 03:07 PM

A Christmas Story Christmas
This recent trend of making sequels to 30 year old movies (Bill and Ted Face the Music, Top Gun Maverick, Confess Fletch) has produced some pretty lackluster results thus far so my trepidation regarding a sequel to the 1983 classic A Christmas Story was understandable, but 2022's A Christmas Story Christmas pretty much knocked it out of the park, a deliciously witty sequel to a classic that provided its own entertainment instead of just rehashing the first movie.
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A grown up Peter Billingsley slips comfortably back into the role of Ralphie Parker, the little boy who more than anything wanted a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Ralph is now living in Chicago with his wife, Sandy and his kids, Mark and Julie. Ralph is pursuing his passion of becoming a writer and has written a book that has been turned down by 15 of the 16 publishers he sent it to. As Christmas approaches, Ralph learns of the passing of his father (brilliantly played by the late Darren McGavin in the original film) and decides to bring his family back to the small town where he grew up to spend Christmas with his mom (Julie Hagerty, replacing Melinda Dillon who played mom in the original).
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Upon his return home, Ralph begins to experience a Murphy's Law Christmas, where everything that can go wrong does. He has to find a real tree to replace the artificial tree he finds in the attic, nursing his family back to health when Sandy sprains her ankle, Mark breaks his arm, and he almost blinds Julie with a snowball, replacing a defective radiator on his car, struggling to write his father's obituary, and going into complete meltdown when all of the Christmas presents he bought for the family get stolen.
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Director Clay Kaytis (The Angry Birds Movie) and screenwriters Jean Shepherd, Billingsley and Nick Schenk show nothing but pure love for the original movie and bring the original canvas beautifully to life but provide us with a fresh, multi-layered story that doesn't just rehash everything that happened in the original film, but evokes memories of the classic without overpowering the story presented here. Like the original film, the story is broken down into individual vignettes that don't all deal directly with Christmas, but do bring us back to Ralphie's childhood documented in 1983. We are delighted as Ralph is reunited with childhood buddies Flick and Schwartz, as well as a memorable reunion with his former bully Scott Farkas and Ralph's little brother Randy. We even are reunited with the next door neighbors', the Bumpases' angry pack of dogs, who antagonized Dad in the original movie. We do get brief flashbacks and reminders of the first movie but nothing is duplicated from the first movie. LOVED when Ralph was looking for the decorations in the attic and found the bunny suit he wore in the original.
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This movie provided laugh out loud entertainment for most of the running time. Loved the narration, even if some of it reminded me of Chris Rock's narration on his sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Particularly loved Julie's grilling of the department store Santa, Ralph's gift shopping adventure while Mom and his wife sipped martinis, the snowball fight where Julie almost loses her eye, Ralph's mission to replace the shattered Christmas star, and everything that happened at "the Ramp."
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It was nice to see so many actors from the original movie reprise their roles. Billingsley is endlessly charming as the grown up Ralph and I'm glad they had the sense to kill off Dad, instead of trying to replace Darrin McGavin, who was perfection in the original. I was a little disappointed that Melinda Dillon didn't return as Mom, but Julie Hagerty was an absolute delight in the role. I also liked that the Mom character was softened a bit. It was nice seeing her drinking wine and cheating at scrabble. Scott Schwartz and JD Robb were terrific as Flick and Schwartz, and the way the incident at "the Ramp" collated with the tongue on the telephone pole incident was clever and I'm glad they didn't try to recreate that scene...been there done that. I had serious reservations about this project when I first heard about it, but my fears have been put to rest and I can safely say if you loved the first movie like I do, you'll like this one too. 4

Gideon58

11-22-22, 05:47 PM

Mickey One
Before they triumphed with Bonnie and Clyde, star Warren Beatty and director Arthur Penn teamed up for a moody and abstract character study called Mickey One about a man trying to run from his past and finding it pretty much impossible.
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The 1965 drama stars Beatty as the title character, a nightclub comedian who is so into the mob for a serious gambling debt that they attempt to murder him. After barely escaping with his life, he decides the only way to continue breathing is to fake his death, assume the identity of a homeless person and go on the run. Ironically, as he is settling into his new anonymous life, he is offered a chance to resume his stage career with the help of a mysterious nightclub owner.
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Screenwriter Alan Surgal provides a story that provides little backstory and logic defying leaps in story structure as well as relationships for the central character that come out of nowhere . We're not exactly sure how much money Mickey owes these guys, but they have scared the bejesus out of him to the point that the guy trusts absolutely no one. For some reason, he does place a semblance of trust in a creepy agent named George and a pretty girl named Jenny, but he doesn't offer either of them the truth as he believes it. The story also makes some odd detours into fantasy where the viewer isn't really sure if they're true fantasies, causing mild confusion at times.
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The holes in the screenplay notwithstanding, this central character will keep the viewer invested. This guy redefines the word paranoia, believing everyone walking the streets of Chicago is after him and the finale, where suddenly Mickey finds that his invisible enemy is not so invisible, is a master class in direction by Penn.
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The atmosphere that Penn creates through stunning black and white cinematography, editing, and a camera that looks into the soul of the title character is simultaneously riveting and chilling. Warren Beatty, in only his fifth feature film appearance, gives a gutsy performance of fire and ice that definitely previews the actor he would become. Kudos as well to Hurd Hatfield (The Picture of Dorian Grey), Alexandra Stewart, and Jeff Corey who make the most of their screentime as well. The story veers in some odd directions at times, but Penn and Beatty make it worth a look. 3.5

Gideon58

11-25-22, 06:02 PM

Spirited
Yes, the holiday season is upon us, but the last thing we need from Hollywood is yet another interpretation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but for some reason there are moviemakers out there who still think they can bring something special to this classic story, but it's pretty much all been done, evidenced by 2022's Spirited an overly cute and slightly confusing musical re-imagining of the Dickens classic that features some spectacular production values, a melodic score from the composers of La La Land, and a willing cast, but its attempt at being a different version of a story we've seen a million times is kind of exhausting and seemed about seven hours long.
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Will Ferrell plays Present, the Ghost of Christmas Present, who has been assigned to haunt Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds), a ruthless media mogul who handles business competition by digging up or creating scandals about them. The latest task he has assigned to his assistant, Kimberly (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer) has her wanting to quit until she somehow is able to see Present, who implores her help in changing Clint and falls for her in the process. Meanwhile, Clint's complete fighting of this process leads him to helping Present deal with his past, leading to a some what surprising reveal.
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Director and co-screenwriter Sean Anders (Daddy's Home) gets an A for effort for the care and imagination he puts into this story, but he really lets it get away from him. We know we're in trouble when Clint comes on to the Ghost of Christmas Past and Present has to take over, but we're confused when Clint unexpectedly turns the tables and Present decides it's time to examine his past, leading to the "big reveal" as to who Present was when he human. Subplots about Clint's dying sister, his niece, who is trying to win a school election, and a supposed romance between Present and Kimberly get shuffled around to the point of distraction. The romance between Present and Kimberly doesn't work at all. Not since Richard Gere kissed Jodie Foster in Somersby have I seen a screen kiss as awkward as the one between Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer.
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The songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are pleasant enough, with special shout outs to Spencer's "The View From Here", Reynolds "Bringin Back Christmas", and Ferrell's "Unredeemable". There's also a spectacular production number that features Ferrell and Reynolds tap dancing called "Good Afternoon" that stops the show, but brings the film to a halt as well. On the plus side, the stars are all doing their own singing.
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Anders was given a big budget for this film and it's all up there on the screen, with shout outs to production design, art direction, editing, and visual effects. Ferrell is more subdued than usual but still does what he's supposed to while allowing Reynolds' slick performance as Clint to really shine, but there's so much going on here, it's just tiring and I wanted the movie to end about 45 minutes before it did. 3

Gideon58

11-26-22, 12:48 PM

Family Business (1989)
A nearly forgotten gem from the resume of one of my favorite directors, Sidney Lumet, Family Business is a 1989 comedy-drama about three generations of a crime family that sags a little in the middle because the least interesting part of the story is the crime.
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This is the story of the McMullen family which unfolds with young Adam McMullen (Matthew Broderick) borrowing money from his father, Vito (Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman) so that he bail his grandfather, Jessie (the late Sean Connery) out of jail. Adam worships his granddad even though Vito resents their closeness. Vito is naturally concerned when Adam comes to his granddad with a robbery idea that could net them over a million and agrees to participate as a way of protecting Adam.
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The screenplay by Vincent Patrick (The Pope of Greenwich Village) is rich with the Brooklyn New York atmosphere that Lumet knows how to mount better than almost any director. Lumet also takes a little time with exposition than most stories do, but in this case, it definitely works to the film's advantage. Before the first act is over, we learn of the tension between Vito and Adam and why Adam blames Vito but Vito blames Jessie. We learn that Jessie thinks his son is stick in the mud for giving up a life of crime to run a meat packing plant. Vito hasn't forgotten where he came from, which comes shining through in a brief scene where he thinks an employee (Luis Guzman) is ripping him off.
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Incredibly, the film really gets hard to stay with when the actually crime is committed, but it bounces back for an extremely effective finale where we learn of the consequences of the McMullen boys' actions and how it changes their already damaged relationships forever. Lumet and Patrick are also to be applauded for not wrapping the story up into a neat little boy where the McMullen boys ride off into the sunset together.
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Lumet's atmospheric direction serves the story perfectly, as it always does, and gets the accustomed splendid performances from his hand-picked cast. Broderick offers his accustomed charm and Hoffman's method acting initially seems ill-suited for this character, but it eventually works, but Connery is the show here, stealing every scene he's in. Lumet's directorial polish and the lead performances help the viewer overlook the minor problems. 3.5

Gideon58

11-26-22, 04:53 PM

The Estate (2022)
The 2022 black comedy The Estate does a serious retread over some well worn cinematic territory and, sadly, doesn't do it very well.
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Macey (Toni Collette) and Savanna (Anna Faris) are sisters who run a diner that is about be foreclosed upon and decide the only way to save their business is to travel to the palatial home of their dying Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) and suck up for the inheritance. Unfortunately, they have been beat to the punch as their arrival finds their bitchy cousin Beatrice, her wimpy husband, and sleazeball cousin Dick are already there, lips firmly attached to Aunt Hilda's butt.
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Director and screenwriter Dean Craig seems to have some sort of obsession with funerals and dysfunctional families because he is also the force behind the dreadful 2010 comedy Death at a Funeral. which featured a mostly black cast. He's gone from blacks to white trash as most of the characters in this movie will probably bring to mind either much superior films like Knives Out, Greedy, and The Honey Pot, but what it actually brings to mind is a an extended episode of Jerry Springer's talk show.
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The initially ass kissing goes all the familiar places we expect, but the film takes a tasteless turn near the halfway point where we learn that Aunt Hilda's bucket list includes a final sex romp and this is where the movie really starts to lose us, especially when Beatrice forces her husband to offer himself to Aunt Hilda.
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It was sad watching a talented actress like Toni Collette debase herself by appearing in such nonsense. I'd like to think that a different actress was originally cast as Macey and had to drop out, making a Collette a fill in. Anna Faris did similar slapstick on Mom and the Scary Movie franchise and Rosemarie Dewitt does bring the bitchy to Beatrice, but the few laughs this film provided actually came from David Duchovny as smarmy Cousin Dick. It wasn't the worst comedy ever, but Toni Collette deserves better than this. 2

Gideon58

11-28-22, 03:49 PM

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
After my recent viewing of The Girl Can't Help it, I knew my next stop on the Jayne Mansfield movie express had to be Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, a sparkling 1957 satire on the advertising agency that is still deliciously entertaining thanks to a razor sharp screenplay and wonderful performances from the stars.
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The comedy stars the late Tony Randall, in his second feature film appearance, as Rockwell P Hunter, an advertising copywriter who has an idea to save the company he works for from losing their biggest client, Stay Put Lipstick. Rockwell decides that if they can get glamorous movie star Rita Marlowe (Mansfield) to endorse their product, all their problems will be solved. Ms. Marlowe is having problems of her own, though. It seems her boyfriend, Bobo (Mickey Hargitay) has been cheating on her. Rockwell does get to pitch Ms. Marlowe, who agrees to endorse the lipstick if Rockwell pretends to be her new boyfriend. Hunter agrees to the charade, even if it turns his life upside down and alienates him from his longtime girlfriend, Jenny (Betsy Drake).
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This comedy is blessed with a surprisingly intelligent and contemporary screenplay by the director Frank Tashlin that not only is an accurate peak at the business of show business in the 1950's but is one of the earliest films that never lets the viewer forget that they're watching a movie, tampering with the 4th wall, even during the opening credits, which I won't spoil by elaborating. Once we're assured that we are watching a movie, we think we're going to get a straight movie until about 35 minutes before the end of the movie, where we get another surprise that this reviewer didn't see coming at all before gliding to its smooth conclusion. I was also impressed with Tashlin's window dressing of the movie, which included movie posters and billboards of other movies where the titles of other Jayne Mansifleld movies were used instead of fictional movie titles
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Admittedly, I was a little disappointed with The Girl Can't Help It, but I thought Jayne Mansfield gave a much more entertaining performance in this film. She gets stronger assistance from her director and the script, playing a role more suited to her talent that still allowed Ms Mansfield to take advantage of her obvious physical assets, and Rita Marlowe is about more than that. As entertaining as Mansfield is here, Tony Randall is the movie's real star, giving such a crackerjack performance of complex physical comedy and flawed human emotion that we can't help but love the guy and want everything he wants for himself. Can't believe this was only his second film.
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Drake is a little one-note as Jenny, but Henry Jones and John Williams were a lot of fun as Rock's bosses, as was Joan Blondell as Rita's assistant. Mickey Hargitay, who played Bobo, was married to Mansfield at the time and they had a daughter, Mariska, who now plays Capt Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU. It's been reputed that Benson's character has a picture if Mariska's mother on her desk, but I've never seen it. And if you look closely, you will notice a pretty secretary named Miss Carstairs in a pair of scenes in this movie, played by a young Barbara Eden. This was sparkling and delightful entertainment from opening to closing credits, and a big improvement over The Girl Can't Help It. 4

Gideon58

12-01-22, 12:26 PM

Till
The first serious contender for a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination, Till is an emotionally charged, fact-based docudrama of racism, grief, and justice mounted with an uncanny melange of power and sensitivity taking this reviewer through a gamut of emotions not felt from a single motion picture experience in a long time.
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The story begins in 1955 Chicago where Mamie Till, a single working mother with a 14 year old son named Emmett, whom she affectionally refers to as Bobo, is apprehensive about letting Bobo go on a vacation to visit some cousins in Mississippi. Mamie warns Bobo to be respectful of everyone he meets down there, especially white people because any action on his part can be misinterpreted. After about a week in Mississippi, Emmett is brutally lynched and Mamie's anger about what happened to Emmett makes her a reluctant symbol for the Civil Rights Movement, but Mamie's only real concern is finding justice for her son.
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Still collecting my thoughts about this emotionally draining motion picture experience that had me mesmerized from opening to closing credits. Director and co-screenwriter Chinonye Chukwu is worthy of double nominations for her incredible work in turning these horrible real life events into a viable motion picture experience. Chukwu takes her time in letting this story unfold, but not too much time so that interest never wanes. Particularly impressive was the care put into the introduction of this Emmett Till character to the viewer. We meet a charming, sensitive, hard-working child who adores his family and life in general. Emmett is portrayed as understanding what racism is, but doesn't really take it seriously as he should have.
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Equal care went into the crafting of the Mamie character as well. This is a woman of not just great strength, but of great intelligence, something we don't expect to see from a black female movie character in the 1950's. Her decision to publish pictures of Emmett's body after it is returned to Chicago was inspired as was her decision to have his casket be open for his funeral. I loved the way Mamie managed to keep herself together during the funeral, but she completely lost it when the box containing her son's body was taken off the boat from Mississippi...one of movie's most powerful scenes, which definitely found me fighting tears.
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Don't want to spoil the final act where the two men who grabbed Emmitt and took him to his final fate are put on trial. Though this part of the film became a little melodramatic, it is forgiven because of what happened, which aroused pure anger. As angry as it made me, it was nothing unrealistic and that's why it was so maddening.
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Chukwu employed first rate production values in bringing this epic the screen. Cinematography, production design, art direction, and costumes are all worthy of Oscar nominatiions. Danielle Deadwyler is also a lock for a Best Actress nomination for her powerhouse performance as Mamie Till Bradley. This dazzling performance brought to mind some of the finest work of Cicely Tyson and Viola Davis. She also nails that thing Viola Davis does where she fills her eyes with water without allowing a tear to fall. Deadwyler's performance coud have carried this film all by itself. Sean Patrick Thomas and Frankie Faison are solid as Mamie's boyfriend and father, respectively and Jalyn Hall is a charmer as young Bobo. And over 30 years after winning her first Oscar for Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg could earn her third nomination for her quietly powerful performance as Mami's mother. Everything works here and leaves a definite lump in the throat while doing it. 4.5

Gideon58

12-03-22, 08:53 PM

Our Man Flint
The 1960's found movie audiences enraptured by three superspy heroes. Of course, Sean Connery was the biggest of them all as James Bond. Dean Martin played Matt Helm in four movies. Though my personal favorite was the dashing Derek Flint, played the charismatic James Coburn in two films, the first of which was 1966's Our Man Flick.
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Apparently, there are three mad scientists who have invented a giant machine that controls the weather and after a govermment agency called Z.O.W.I.E. loses an entire team of agents trying to get this machine, a huge computer decides that the only person who can handle the assignment is a rogue agent named Derek Flint, who the head of Z.O.W.I.E, Mr. Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hates working with, but is outnumbered as the united nations of the government organization won't accept anyone else for the job.
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The screenplay by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr is kind of confusing because we're first told about this evil weather machine, but once Flint is on the job, we find him searching for a secret cold cream from the Exotica Beauty Company which has some kind of connection to this weather machine and two people keeping Flint from the cream, the insane Malcolm Rodney (Edward Mulhare) and the breathtaking Gila (Gila Golan) are assigned to stop him, a plan that includes kidnapping Derek's international girl posse and trapping him in a giant safe and burying it underground. As closely as I watched, I never really got the connection between this cold cream and these scientists who wanted to control the weather, though these guys had a higher purpose than weather control, which was revealed way too late for the viewer to care. It's definitly done in the style of a spoof, but with a slightly straighter face than the Matt Helm movies.
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The plot is so not what makes this movie so much fun. What makes this movie fun is the perfect marriage of actor and character in James Coburn and Derek Flint. Coburn absolutely lights up the screen in this movie and appears to be having a ball while he's doing it. The realationship between Flint and Cobb's characters reminded me of the relationship between Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther franchise. I loved the fact that Flint didn't want any of the assistance offered to him by Cramden and that he didn't have a whole lot of gadgetry to assist him, just one gadget...he had this gold cigarette lighter that could do just about anything Flint needed it to.
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Twentieth Century Fox poured a lot of money into this movie, that is gorgeous to look at, the scenery, be it geographical or feminine is stunning and the story features some really amazing set pieces, especially this weather machine, but nothing outstages the sexy and dynamic Coburn, who makes this movie worth watching all by himself. Edward Mulhare tries to channel Michael Caine and Golan is gorgeous, but this is Coburn's show and he knocks it out of the park. Followed by a sequel called In Like Flint. 3.5

Takoma11

12-03-22, 09:23 PM

Gideon58

12-05-22, 12:49 PM

Great film that had me fighting tears and rage.

Gideon58

12-05-22, 01:34 PM

Amsterdam (2022)
Five time oscar nominated director and screenwriter David O Russell puts a lot of work into 2022's Amsterdam, a big budget, star-studded epic of murder and political conspiracy that struggles to retain viewer interest due to an overly complex screenplay, a norm for Russell and lethargic direction, not a norm for Russell.
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As he did with American Hustle, Russell lets us know immediatey that "some of this really happened." Bert Berendsen (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodman (John David Washington) were soldiers and friends during WWI who meet a beautiful nurse named Valerie (Margot Robbie) in the title city and have a hard time defining their relationship. After the war, Bert becomes a doctor and Harold becomes a lawyer and become separated from Valerie. Bert has been asked to perform an autopsy on his former commanding officer (Ed Begley Jr) by his daughter, Liz (Taylor Swift). Before they can complete the autopsy, Liz is pushed in front of a car and killed and Bert and Harold are accused of the crime. The battle to clear their names of the crime leads them to a political conspiracy of mammoth proportions involving another WWI General (Robert De Niro).
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Russell's story starts off as a standard murder mystery that initially confuses because we see Liz's murder and know that Bert and Harold are innocent and can't figure out how they are being railroaded for it. The story then flashes back to WWI and shows us how Bert and Harold met, a story move that was unnecessary because Bert and Harold's relationship didn't really need the clarification that Russell thought it did. As the pair begin looking into these murders, they are unexpectedly reunited with Valerie, who now has all these mental health issues that weren't even hinted at when the trio met in Amsterdam that hinder Bert and Harold's mission, but they don't seem to care. The complex relationship between the three reminded me of Butch, Sundance, and Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and was, frankly, a lot more interesting than the primary story. I did like the fact that the black guy got the girl and there wasn't a lot of screentime wasted on racism.
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Russell's leisurely unfolding of this story is really to the film's detriment, primarily due to unnecessary flashbacks and brief fantasy sequences that really don't add anything to the story. Russell's direction is snail-paced, making this film seem seven hours long. The sequence where the trio confront De Niro's character and we learn that Valerie is suffering from vertigo go on much too long as well as the reveal of the political faction that wants De Niro's character's assistance in their own government takeover.
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Russell does put his budget to effective use in crafting the ethereal look of the film, an often dreamy look that made this reviewer think that we were eventually going to have a "and then I woke up" scene that never happened. The camerawork is crisp and concise and the cinematography, art design, and costumes are all Oscar-worthy. Christian Bale offers another of his one-of-a-kind characterizations as Berendsen, losing himself, as always, in a character where he reminded me of Peter Falk's Columbo. Washington and Robbie produced a surprising chemistry that I didn't see coming as well. Stars pop up throughout in supporting roles that serve the story, including Michael Shannon, Rami Malek (superb), Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Meyers, Chris Rock, Timothy Olyphant, and Colleen Camp. There are some terrific performances and Russell employs some style in his execution, but the story takes WAY too long to get where it goes. 3

Gideon58

12-07-22, 11:11 AM

For Richer For Poorer
The shocking news of Kirstie Alley's passing motivated my first viewing of For Richer For Poorer, an amusing slapstick comedy with a couple of importsnt themes brimming underneath the surface that does provide sporadic laughs.
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The 1997 comedy stars Alley and Tim Allen as Caroline and Brad Sexton, a wealthy married pair of Manhattan-ites on the verge of divorce who find themselves on the run because of a huge debt to the IRS. They steal a cab and flee Manhattan winding up in Amish country where they befriend a family called the Yoders, claiming to be long-lost relatives of theirs.
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The screenplay provides knowing winks to 1990's yuppidom as well as messages about the importance of communication, and the importance of family as the Sextons find themselves welcomed into the Yoder family unconditionally. Of course, the Sextons are given a wake up call regarding Amish life when they have to wake up every day at 5:00 AM to do chores. Eventually, the Sextons bring their own talents to the Yoder table, creating a new bond with the Yoders that gets quashed by the IRS.
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One thing that worked for this story is the fact that the screenwriters don't forget the fact that the Sextons are in trouble with the IRS. Stories like this usually, at some point, forget why the protagonists are on the run, but this one never does, thanks to a pair of agents who stay on the trail, but stay behind the Sextons just long enough for them to begin establishing a new life. The initial arrival at the Yoders provides the expected physical comedy with Brad learning how to plow fields and Caroline learning how to cook and sew. But once Brad helps the men folk with a real estate deal and Caroline helps the women with a fashion line that features other colors than black, the expected but desired mending of their marriage begins.
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Allen and Alley both prove to be gifted farceuers and experts at physical comedy, creating viable chemistry as the Sextons. Jay O Sanders rich performance as Samuel Yoder was a master class in the "less is more" school of acting and Larry Miller and Miguel A Nunez were fun as the IRS agents on the Sexton's trail. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief apperance from Marla Maples Trump as one of Caroline's besties. The film does provide some laughs, but it's nothing special. RIP, Kirstie. 3

Gideon58

12-08-22, 01:10 PM

She Said
An All the President's Men for the "Me Too" generation, 2022's She Said is a slightly pretentious, but meticulously crafted docudrama about a newspaper's pursuit of a powerful sexual predator that had to be a logistical and legal nightmare for the filmmakers, but they do manage to provide emotionally charged entertainment on a squirm-worthy subject that is more than worthy of a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination.
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New York Times investigative journalist Megan Twoehy has just completed an expose into sexual harrassment charges filed against Donald Trump when she joins fellow reporter Jodi Kantor in a story on the sexual misconduct of Miramax Pictures president Harvey Weinstein, which eventually led to over 100 women coming forward with their stories and Weinsten eventually being sentenced to 23 years in prison.
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The Oscar-worthy screenplay is a collaborative effort between Twoehy, Kantor, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz that had to have all kinds of logistical issues blocking its creation. It's not just the fact that we're looking at a real story, but a story where people involved in it refused to go on the record, so why would they go on record for a movie? Not to mention the fact that a lot of the players in this story were very famous and the only one commits completely to the movie is Ashley Judd, who appears onscreen in her own voice. Gwyneth Paltrow, a major player in this story, only lends her voice to this film and doesn't appear onscreen. It was interesting during the climactic scene where Weinstein is trying to stop the story from being printed, the only thing he was worried about was if they were going to name Paltrow. According to this film, that was his ony concern about this story,,,very telling in this reiewer's opinion and I won't spoil the scene where Paltrow does lend her voice, but it's quite effective.
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Director Maria Schrader, director of the Emmy winning mini-series Unorthadox displays a polished, if slightly melodramtic directorial eye here. The shots of Megan and Jodi always glide smoothly into focus from a shot of the entire floor of the New York Times, a set as breathtaking as the one of the Washington Post in Alan J Pakula's 1976 classic. The danger these reporters put themselves in is made apparent from te beginning. Schrader lovingly documents a moment where Megan receives an anonymous phone call where the caller threatens to rape and murder Megan and throw her in the East River. It was a terrifying moment that, oddly, is never again referenced in the story. It did prepare us for the dangerous mine fields that Megan and Jodi are about to navigate.
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The story also brilliantly establishes different elements of support, terror, and resentment for Weinstein. It wasn't just the obvious matter of NDA's. We see people who blindly support Miramax and Weinstein, we see people who want their story told but won't go on the record, and the people who have the dope and want to halp, but can't for varied reasons. LOVED the scene where the reporters question one of Harvey's lawyers, brilliantly played by Peter Friedman, who played a similar role on the HBO series Succession. The legal tap dance this guy does in this scene is a joy to watch.
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The film is gorgeously mounted featuring first rate cinematography and production design. Carey Mulligan could earn a third Best Actress nomination for her hard as nails Megan. Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of legendary director Elia Kazan, works very hard in the Jodi Kantor role. Patricia Clarkson, Andre Brsugher, Jennifer Ehle, and Tom Pelphrey offer standout support as does Keilly McQuail as the voice of Rose McGowan. Needless to say Weinstein doesn't appear oonscreen either except from the back. Considering all the legal issues that probably came up in bringing this story to the screen, Schrader and Lenkiewicz nail bringing this still disturbing story to the screen. 4.5

Gideon58

12-09-22, 01:44 PM

Inherit the Wind (1960)
The thunderous performances by two of the greatest actors in Hollywood history make the 1960 classic Inherit the Wind worth watching by themselves.
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This is the fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 where a teacher named John Scopes is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution to his students which was, of course, in direct conflict of the teachings of the Bible and had the small town where Scopoes lived up in arms. Scopes is renamed Bertam Cates for this movie and the prosecutor, Matthew Harriosn Brady and the defense attorney, Henry Drummond both travel from out of town to face each other in this historical trial. Brady is actually legendary attorney Williams Jennings Bryan and Drummond is really Clarenca Darrow.
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The film is based on a play by Jerome Lawrence that opened on Broadway in 1955. The Oscar-nominated screenplay adapted by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith is a balanced account of a squirm-worthy topic. The theories of church and state are once again put on theatrical display in the form of a compelling legal drama, though it does take its time in setting up the story and characters since the actual trial doesn't begin until about halfway through the film. During the first half of the film, we learn that the townspeople want to lynch Cates without a trial and are observed throwing things at the window of his jail cell. An element of the story revealed in the set up that was news to this reviewer is that Drummond and Brady were old friends before this trial began, bringing a layer to the proceedings we don't see coming, not to mention Henry's friendship with Brady's conflicted wife, Sarah, whose feeling about this whole trial are difficult to guage throughout.
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The way the two lawyers are greeted upon their arrival in Hillsborough is like night and day and only intensifies the conflict between the lawyers. We also have our own tour guide for the trial, a newspaper reporter named EK Hornbeck (based on HL Mencken) who has come to town to cover the trial for his paper, liberally spreading his atheist sensibilities throughout the story providing unexpected but welcome comic relief.
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But what really makes this movie sizzle is director Stanley Kramer's atmospheric direction and the performances by double Oscar winners Spencer Tracy and Fredric March as Drummond and Brady, respectively. Tracy's sensible good ole boy characterization against March's theatrical fire and brimstone performance burn a hole in the screen and actually had my heart beating faster. The pleasure of watching these two acting powerhouses chewing the scenery to maximum effect was unlike anything. We just don't have actors like this anymore. Especially loved Tracy during the selection of the final juror and when he calls March as his only witness, we know we're in for high octane drama and it totally delivers.
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The film's Oscar nominated cinematography is a big asset, perfectly enhancing the sweaty atmosphere of the story. The solid supporting cast includes Gene Kelly, perfection as the cynical Hornbeck, providing comic relief without singing or dancing; Dick York, five years before he became Darren on Bewitched, properly sincere as Bertram Cates, Harry Morgan as the judge, and Claude Akins as Rev. Brown. Kudos as well to an actress named Florence Eldridge, in a classy turn as Brady's wife, Sarah. This is appointment viewing for classic movie fans. Remade for television twice...Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas played Drummond and Brady in 1988 and in 1999 the roles went to Jack Lemmon and George C Scott. 4.5

Gideon58

12-10-22, 04:34 PM

Tar
An extraordinary performance by Cate Blanchett that could earn her a third Oscar anchors Tar, a pretentious and long-winded dramatic character study that is mad with extraordinary film technique which is eventually dwarfed by its severe overlength.
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The 2022 film stars Blanchett as Lydia Tar, a world renowned composer and orchestra conductor looking forward to the release of her book and becoming the first female conductor of a German symphony. Sadly, the incredible accomplishments of Tar's career are about to be eclipsed thanks to some questionable decisions in her personal lkife.
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This film has the privilege of being written and directed by the gifted Todd Field, whose resume includes In the Bedroom, Little Children, and playing Nick Nightingale in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, so challenging and squirm worthy stories are nothing new to him and he employs skills from all his work into the mounting of this story. It starts off with the central character being interviewed on an Inside the Actor's Studio-type TV show that initially gives the film an almost documentary feel. It feels so authentic that one might be tempted to google Lydia Tar to find out whether she was a real person, like the first time I saw Zelig. However, as the film progresses, the onscreen analysis of Lydia Tar becomes more personal, more intimate, more voyeuristic...the story feels like it's being told from the point of view of a private detective who has been hired to tail Tar. There are so many scenes shot from afar or off the center of the screen, like the camera's not supposed to be there.
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There is no denying that Field has created a fascinating central character in Lydia Tar and has forced Blanchett to do the work required to give the performance as much authenticity as possible. This role requires Blanchett to play more than one musical instrument, conduct, and speak fluent German, all of which she makes appear effortless. There are a few scenes with Blanchett and the German orchestra where she floats effortlessly between English and German without missing a beat. Her conducting was also far superior to JK Simmons' conducting in Whiplash...more passionate and more technical.
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Unfortunately, Field does get a little full of himself padding screentime with stuff that adds nothing to the story. We get several shots of Tar jogging that add nothing to the story, the most aggravating of which is a scene where she hears a woman screaming while she's jogging and trying to figure out where the screaming is coming from that goes dark with no resolution and we think Field is going to get back to it, but he never does. It's initially a very titillating scene that just comes off as a missed opportunity.
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The film is technically splendid including first rate cinematography and production design. Ironically, for a movie about music and musicians, the film barely had any music score, except for what was produced by the orchestra but it's not really missed. But more than anything, it is the sizzling and emotionally demanding work by Cate Blanchett that energizes this film and will make Blanchett a dead lock for a Best Actress nomination this year. Sadly, not even Blanchett's work can justify this film's two hour and thirty eight minute length.
3.5

Gideon58

12-12-22, 12:44 PM

Badlands
Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) made his first serious impression as a filmmaker with 1973's Badlands, a handsomely-mounted fact-based crime drama rich with stylish direction, arresting visual images, and two enigmatic lead characters brought beautifully to life by the actors portraying them.
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It's South Dakota in the late 1950's where we meet Holly (Sissy Spacek) a sensitive and introverted 15 year old who finds herself drawn to the decade older Kit (Martin Sheen), an angry young man with a James Dean complex. Holly's father doesn't approve of the relationship and when Kit's attempt to win over Holly's dad fails, he impulsively murders the man, sending Kit and Holly on the run, resulting in a killing spree that resulted in the death of at least a dozen people.
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Malick's screenplay is based on the real life killing spree by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, but the names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. One element of the story that grew on me was Holly's narration, which initially seems unneccesary, but as the film progresses, it becomes important because it is our only exposure to how Holly really feels about Kit.
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And this where the story becomes alternately confusing and riveting, thanks primarily to Malick's direction. Kit is instantly attracted to Holy but respects her, while it is clear through Holly's body language, that she wants more than anything to have a sexual relationship with Kit, but she never says anything nor does she try to start anything, which creates an undeniable sexual tension between the characters that never really gets resolved (at least according to this film). The characters only share one kiss, which occurs 25 minutes before the closing credits. Don't really believe that these two never had sex, but maybe one of the conditions put upon Malick to get the film greenlighted was to leave out any implications of sex between a 15 year old girl and a 25 year old man.
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Malick mounts this story on a breathtaking canvas, offering superior camerawork showing Kit and Holly traveling across the South Dakota badlands, determined to start a life together, but not really having a set in stone plan either. There's such a realism in the fact that Holly sees most of the wrong that Kit does in this story, but only says no to him once during the entire running time. It was also interesting watching Kit's self-preservation and his compunction for homicide eventually be dominated by the feeling that he will be caught and pay for the consequences of his actions, a rarity for movie characters like Kit.
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Malick gets first rate assistance from his cinematography team and I loved George Aliceson Tipton's loopy music, over which Malik obviously exercised some control, as it doesn't punctuate every second of film. Martin Sheen is sexy and dangerous in his Oscar-worthy turn as Kit, looking exactly like his son Charlie, a few years before he started on Two and a Half Men. It's a powerhouse performance with minimal scenery chewing...that scene where he talks the rich guy into letting him and Holly hide out in his mansion made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Sissy Spacek is equally charismatic, effectively foreshadowing the movie star she would become three year later starring in Carrie. Warren Oates makes his brief role as Holly's dad count and also liked Alan Vint as a young deputy. A riveting and intense fact-based story that was the inspiration for the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers and for a 2004 TV movie called Starkweather. 4

Gideon58

12-13-22, 03:36 PM

Deon Cole: Charleen's Boy
Comedian Deon Cole, probably best known for playing Charlie on the ABC sitcom Black-ish, returns to the mic for his second Netflix special entitled Deon Cole: Charleen's Boy.
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Shot live from am unidentified theater in Brooklyn, New York, Cole hits the stage dressed in olive green leather pants, a black shirt, and a medallion around his neck that looked like it weighed thirty pounds. He demands attention immediately by jumping right into the most popular topic for standup comics: sex and relationships. His material definitely has a very sexist slant and like Chris Rock, his material contains observations that only one sex or the other would find amusing, but he never offends the males or the females in the audience, keeping them all on his side throughout the evening.
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At one point, during a very abrupt transition, Cole suddenly bursts into a diatribe about homophobia and tolerance that seemed to be pandering toward political correctness, which led to a bit about a very homophobic uncle that brought major laughs but, for this reviewer, kind of revealed the homophobia in Cole.
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Another thing I loved that I loved that Cole had an affinity for that comics like Howie Mandel and DL Hughley were very good at. He was very good at aiming a jokes at specific audience members and embarrassing them in front of the rest of the theater. At one point, he forced a guy to admit that his date was "big boned" and also put one of the few white member of the audience in the comedy catbird seat until she admitted what he wanted her to admit. He also scores in his presenting the advantages of dating an older woman.
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And not since Richard Pryor have I seen a comic talk about bathroom habits that hit a direct bullseye. I was also surprised when, at one point, he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "All right, I'm going to tell y'all some jokes now" and the audience burst into wild applause. I'm assuming this was connected to something he did in his first special, but I didn't see his first special. But these jokes on paper were probably the strongest part of his evening. His work needs a little polish, but Cole definitely shows the potential to be the next Chris Rock. And I have to admit his final speech did leave a bit of a lump in the throat. 3.5

Gideon58

12-14-22, 09:53 PM

Love, Actually
Director and screenwriter Richard Curtis is the creative force behind a unique and epic look at the universal concept of love in 2003's Love, Actually, a lavishly produced melding of multiple storylines that requires undivided attention from the viewer and pays off for the most part because some of the stories work and some don't. Fortunately, the stories that do work work so well that we're able to forgive what doesn't.
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It's contemporary London a month before Christmas where we see several different kinds of love stories unfold before us. Hugh Grant plays the new Prime Minister whose attraction to his new assistant is stalled when he mistakes something he thinks happened between her and the President of the United States. The Prime Minister's sister, Karen (Oscar winner Emma Thompson) is in a long term marriage with a business executive (the late Alan Rickman) who begins to suspect her marriage is not what she thinks it is. Jamie (Oscar winner Colin Firth) is a writer who falls for his non-English speaking housekeeper. Peter and Mark are BFFs whose friendship is challenged when Peter marries Juliet (Kiera Knightley) because Mark is secretly in love with Peter or Juliet, but we're not sure which one. Liam Neesom plays a widower trying to help his young son deal with his mad crush on a classmate. Laura Linney plays an office worker who finally faces up to her office crush, that the whole office knows about. There's also an aging rock star named Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) whose new smash hit recording of a Christmas cover has helped him discover what love really means.
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Yeah, there's a whole lot of story going on here and the description in the above paragraph doesn't even cover all the stories told in this movie, but these are the ones that worked for this reviewer. Curtis has provided fresh and funny dialogue that provided selected laughs in all the stories, even the ones that don't work. Sometimes it seems like Curtis has forgotten about certain stories that he's started and just when that occurs to the viewer, the movie goes right back to that story. The connections between the stories are initially paper thin and sparse. More connection are revealed during the final third of the film that happen so quickly that it's a bit confusing, but most of the stories have an individual charm that keep us invested.
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Didn't really care about the story of a romantically challenged guy who thinks the solution to his problem is to move from London to Wisconsin. The story of nude body doubles in a movie really didn't do anything for me and sort of faded in the background. To be perfectly honest, the two funniest scenes had nothing directly to do with any of stories: One was Hugh Grant's dance to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump" and the other was Rickman being frustrated trying to get a gift wrapped by a persnickety salesclerk, delightfully played by Rowan Atkinson.
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Curtis' direction is as stylish as his writing, even if it is bit obvious in places. Loved Emma Thompson, who brings a richness to her role that's not in th script and Grant has rarely been so charming, but if the truth be told, Bill Nighy steals the show as the aging rocker, a performance of such humor and pathos that it should have earned him an Oscar nomination. Also have to give a shout out to Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton's slimy turn as the POTUS. Not everything works, but the stuff that works is amazing. Yeah, it's longer than it needs to be I guess, but I sure wasn't checking my watch. 4

Gideon58

12-15-22, 03:47 PM

The Fabelmans
After his spectacular remake of the musical West Side Story, it would be nice to report that Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated semi-autobiographical epic The Fabelmans was just as good. Spielberg's 2022 look at his childhood and teenage years has been getting serious Oscar buzz for quite awhile now, but this reviewer is scratching head as to why this long-winded fact-based melodrama is getting the attention it is.
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This film is a thinly-diguised look at the childhood of Spielberg and his family, renamed the Fabelmans for this film. A devout Jewish family that was supposedly pulled in multiple directions due to the troubled marriage of Sammy's parents. Burt Fabelman is a hard working computer engineer who, while away from the office, is a bit of a dullard. MItzi Fabelman is a fun loving woman who always wants to be the center of attention, which leads to an implication that the woman's bizarre behavior is due to some mental health issues, which Burt has tried to shield his children from, but his relationship with Sammy's mother has severe effects on Sammy as he gets older.
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Spielberg and his West Side Story screenwriter Tony Kushner have collaborated on the screenplay that should have been much more compelling than it was due to the subject. The story is filled with cliched dialogue and moves in some funny directions for an alleged fact-based story of a living cinema legend. The screenplay is very protective of little Sammy/Steven...everything that goes wrong in his life seems to be blamed on all the people in his life. The thematic through line of Burt always referring to Sammy's love of filmmaking as a "hobby" smacked of cliche and Sammy's feelings about his mother seemed to change from scene to scene. One thing that did ring true was whenever Sammy shows one ofhis finished films to an audience, as impressed as they might be, Sammy was never completely happy with his work, but what director was?
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After a very slow moving first half, the film picks up a little when the Fabelmans move to California and Sammy finds himself being bullied and harassed because he's Jewish. I'm a black man who grew up in the 1960's and I can't remember any Jewish kids going through the kind of bullying that Sammy does in this movie. Personal, this felt more like Spielberg's discomfort with being Jewish blown up for drama than the lifestyle of his high school years. And the scene where his bully can't understand why Sammy's movie made him look like a hero was unintentionally funny.
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There is a lot to admire here. The film is beautifully photographed, lovingly recreating 1950's and 1960's Arizona and California. I was also impressed with Spielberg's choice for a song score...not the same old songs from the 50's and 60's that we hear in every period piece. After four previous nominations, Michelle Williams has a real shot at winning her first Oscar, despite some tough competition, for her powerhouse performance as Mitzi Fabelman that was so riveting that her performance alone made this film worth seeing. I also wouldn't mind seeing Paul Dano earn his long overdue first nomination for his conflicted Burt and a supporting nomination for Gabriel LaBelle as the thinly disguised Spielberg is a possibility as well. Production values are what one would expect from Spielberg, but I really don't get what all the fuss is about this film. I felt the same way after watching Licorice Pizza last year: "Ok...so?"
3.5

Gideon58

12-16-22, 04:22 PM

Barney's Version
A ferocious performance by the always watchable Paul Giamatti is reason enough to give 2010's Barney's Version a look.
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This dramedy/character study is a voyeuristic cinema verite into the life of one Barney Panofsky, a hard-drinking, womanizing, television producer who has a son from one of his first two marriages and is abut to dip his big toe into the marital waters once again. This film asks us to place judgment upon this poor schlub, who is struggling with the same things most average Joes are, but, for some reason reason, is getting blasted from all sides when he swings and misses.
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The life of Barney and his friends unfolds like the standard biography, but then allows the other characters to expound on their friendship with Barney. Just a clue on the type of guy this Barney is, on his wedding day, his third wedding day, he asked another woman to fly to Rome with him.
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Just like Miles in Sideways, this role is an actor's dream and Giamatti makes the most of it. Love the scene at the wedding where he tears his new father-in-law a new one for disrespecting his father (Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman). Or the confrontation on the dock with his best friend, Boogie (Scott Speadman). There are slow spots here and there, mostly whenever Giamatti and Hoffman aren't onscreen.
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The film features some beautiful photography and loved the music too. Giamatti is Oscar-worthy in a flashy role where the character is rarely seen in s flattering light. Oscar nominee Rosamond Pike (Gone Girl) is surprisingly subdued as the woman Barney wants to take to Rome. Minnie Driver also steals every scene she's in as Barney's high strung third bride.
There's an occasional lull in the proceedings, but Giamatti and Hoffman make this one worth investing in. 4

Gideon58

12-19-22, 12:54 PM

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Remember a 1955 Warner Brothers cartoon called One Froggy Evening about a magician who finds a frog who sings and dances but refuses to do it in front of an audience? The cartoon seems to be the inspiration for a 2022 musical fantasy called Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile that starts off promisingly but eventually succumbs to melodramatic predictability.
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Oscar winner Jarvier Bardem plays Hector Valenti, a 3rd rate magician with some serious debt hanging over him, who discovers a singing baby crocodile named Lyle (voiced by 3 time Grammy nominee Shawn Mendes) and he thinks he's out of the woods until he realizes Lyle has stage fright and will only sing with Hector. Touched but more concerned with his legs being broken, Hector abandons Lyle in order to save his own neck. Lyle is then befriended by the new occupants of Hector's brownstone, a neurotic pre-teen named named Josh and his tightly wound father and stepmother.
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This film has some good people behind its origin. The film was co-directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who co-directed Office Christmas Party and a musical score by the current go-to guys for a musical score, Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the scores for La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen, And despite some very clever use of Manhattan locations and some terrific camera work, the whole thing is so predictable for the most part, except for one element of the film, which I didn't see coming at all.
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And that element was the performance of Jarvier Bardem as the slightly smarmy Hector Valenti. When thinking of movie song and dance men, Bardem's name is probably at the bottom of the list, but his dazzling musical comedy performance is easily the most interesting aspect of this movie, which starts out as a tribute to One Froggy Evening and during its final act, is pretty much taken from last year's Clifford the Big Red Dog. Honestly, the film screeches to a halt when Bardem is not onscreen, which is almost half of the running time, not a good thing.
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Pasek and Paul contribute some nice songs to the movie, but their songs are beginning to sound a lot alike and not as groundbreaking when they wrote La La Land six years ago. Constance Wu Hustlers is charming as Josh's mom and Brent Gelman is appropriately obnoxious as the tight-ass downstairs neighbor, but if the truth be fold, when Bardem is offscreen, this film is pretty rough going. BTW, Bardem is doing his own singing. 2.5

gbgoodies

12-19-22, 11:50 PM

I was looking forward to Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

I'm still planning to see it, but I'm just a little less hyped about it now.

Gideon58

12-22-22, 01:28 PM

Gidget (1959)
Four years before Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello hit the beach in Beach Party, filmgoers were introduced to a pretty young beach bunny in a 1959 piece of cinematic cotton candy called Gidget that, despite some dated plot elements, offers slight entertainment thanks to the charming performances by the leads.
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Sandra Dee, one of the biggest stars on the planet at the time, inhabits the starring role of Francie "Gidget" Lawrence, a bubbly, 16 year old who wants a boyfriend more than anything else in the whole world and decides that her search for romance would be abetted by the purchase of a surfboard and hanging out with the college age surfing buddies, where Gidget finds herself torn between the Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson), an aging beach bum who lives in a shack on the beach and Moondoggie (James Darren), a cute beach bum wannabe who is actually what we now refer to as a trust fund baby.
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Screenwriter Gabrielle Upton, whose primary experience in the business was as a writer for soap operas, definitely shows her hand here, creating a fluffy romantic triangle that goes all the places that a soap opera triangle would. It's cute watching these three trying to deny their feelings for each other and using each other to make each other jealous. There are some adult touches to the story that surprised me. like the fact that at one point, Gidget actually offers financial compensation to Kahuna to make Moondoggie jealous, but even that plot point takes a detour we don't see coming.
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The story does feature a lot of the same dated elements we saw in the later Beach Party franchise where we saw a lot of kids hanging out on the beach who appeared to have no home, parents, or appeared not to attend school. College is mentioned by a couple of characters along the way, but outside of Gidget's parents, no one in this movie seems to have any kind of adult responsibility. The only thing Gidget and her girlfriends had on their mind was getting a man and the guys at the beach treat Gidget ( a mashup of the words "girl" and "midget") like a school mascot. And not sure why, but I was a little bit shocked by a brief scene where Gidget is observed doing breast exercises, something I definitely didn't expect in a 1959 teen comedy.
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Columbia didn't put a lot of money into production values, but audiences only cared about teen idols Sandra Dee and James Darren cuddling onscreen, making almost as engaging an onscreen couple as Frankie and Annette. Robertson was quite slick as The Big Kahuna, but the age difference between him and Dee gave their scenes a bit of an "ick" factor. Arthur O'Connell and Mary La Roche were fun as Gidget's parents. You might remember La Roche as Ann-Margret's mother in Bye Bye Birdie. This film also features early film appearances from Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack), Doug McClure, and Yvonne Craig. Cute, but nothing special.
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The character has been revisited over the years in several forms. Deborah Walley played the character in Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Cindy Carol played her in Gidget Goes to Rome. There was an ABC sitcom in 1966 with Sally Field playing the character and Karen Valentine also played her in a TV movie called Gidget Grows Up. The character was also revived in 1986 for a syndicated series with Caryn Richman in the role. Even though she only appeared in the first of three films, Dee and Field are the actresses most associated with this role. 3

Gideon58

12-23-22, 01:17 PM

Violent Night
For those whose favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard, a whimsical and bloody black comedy/action adventure called Violent Night could become a new favorite Christmas movie tradition.
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The 2022 film opens with Santa Claus getting drunk at a bar during a break on his Christmas Eve duties. Santa leaves the bar and arrives at the home of a very wealthy family who, while enjoying the homemade cookies and skim milk they left out for him, are actually being held hostage by a group of terrorists who are after a whole lot of money in the basement of the mansion. The reindeer desert Santa and it is up to him to save this family.
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Screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller (Sonic the Hedgehog) really strike gold here with an intricate screenplay that borrows elements from several movies, other than Die Hard and give them just enough tweaking that we accept what turns out to be a thinly disguised homage to films like Home Alone, Knives Out, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Santa Clause.
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There were a couple of minor plot points that were hard to legitimize. Primarily, number one son of the wealthy family, Jason, gives his daughter, Trudy, a walkie talkie and tells her it's a direct line to Santa Claus. Later on in the film, the corresponding walkie talkie is found on the body of a terrorist that Santa Claus takes out and maybe I missed how he ended up with the walkie talkie, but falling into Santa's hands, it allows Santa and Trudy to communicate throughout the film even though they're separated physically for most of the story like Bruce Willis and Reginald VelGleason in Die Hard.
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What I really loved about this movie is the sometimes hard to swallow hook for the story that this guy is actually Santa Claus. We assume when we see him at the bar getting drunk that he is some sort of department store Santa, sick of his job because he's bewailing the ingratitude of today's children, something that was hard to argue with, but the story never wavers from the fact that this guy is really Santa Claus (though a new backstory provided for the character legitimizes his John McLane tendencies). Lost it when he got mad at the reindeer for deserting him in his time of danger and berating them again for conveniently showing up when the danger is over.
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Director Tommy Wirkola mounts this story on a grand scale with bloody and unrelenting violence not expected in a Christmas movie. A Christmas tree star becomes quite the deadly weapon here, as does a fake icicle from a nativity scene. There are some great set pieces, my favorites being Santa's "nice" and "naughty" lists.
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One of Hollywood's most underrated actors, David Harbour is Oscar-worthy as Santa, a role that requires gut busting machismo and undeniable sensitivity. Action movie performances rarely get Oscar nominations but Harbour is absolutely superb here, exploring every nook and cranny of this character and John Leguizamo scores as Scrooge, Leguizamo's first straight up villain since playing Tybalt in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, Alex Hassell made the most of his role as Jason and have to give a shout out to the long absent from the screen Beverly D'Angelo as the bitchy family matriarch. What can I say, this movie was all kinds of fun and had me on the edge of my seat. Well done. 4

Takoma11

12-23-22, 01:30 PM

I am very excited to see Violent Night at some point.

KeyserCorleone

12-23-22, 08:08 PM

I am very excited to see Violent Night at some point.

Get the candy-cane shaped rifles ready.

Gideon58

12-27-22, 01:05 PM

Daddy Day Care
He must have really needed the money. It's the only reason I can think of that Eddie Murphy would sign onto a by-the-numbers comedy from 2003 called Daddy Day Care, which was much better when it was called Kindergarten Cop.
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Murphy, Jeff Garlin, and Steve Zahn play a trio of employees from an advertising agency who get laid off and after futile attempts at getting another job decide to open up a day care center in Murphy's home. Things are going OK until they meet serious competition from Miss Harridan (Oscar winner Anjelica Huston) as the head of the most popular and expensive day care center in town who decides she has to put these guys out of business.
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Geoff Rodkey's utterly predictable screenplay goes all the places we expect it to go. The initial few days of Daddy Day Care provide every attempt at overly cute humor with children that the viewer would expect from the premise. The kids are all the archetypes that one would expect from such a story. We have the kid who can't tear himself away from Mommy, the kid who shows up every day in a Flash costume, and a kid who is dealing with uncontrollable flatulence. The scene where this kid lets go and starts making all kinds of unfunny faces was just embarrassing.
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The most embarrassing part of this movie is Eddie Murphy's involvement. Something tells me that this film would never have been greenlighted without Murphy on board. Ironically, there is nothing in the role of Phil that seems tailored to Murphy's talents and as the film progressed, it was obvious that just about anyone could play this role and Murphy brought nothing special to it. This film was made at a time when Murphy was making one bad movie after another in search of another Beverly Hills Cop in order to re-ignite his career, but he chose the wrong vehicle here.
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Director Steve Carr (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) allows this movie to move at a snail's pace and brings no imagination to his mounting of the story. Murphy and Garlin had no chemistry whatsoever, but Zahn and Huston stole every scene they were in. Also, if you look close, you'll notice that one of the kids in Daddy Day Care is a very young Elle Fanning and the kid in the Flash costume is Jimmy Bennett, who was Lindsey Lohan's romantic interest in Mean Girls. For hardcore Murphy fans only. Incredibly, followed by a sequel called Granddaddy Day Care. 2

Gideon58

12-28-22, 09:16 PM

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson, who was robbed of an original screenplay Oscar for the flawless Knives Out is not quite as successful as producer, writer, and director of 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a sumptuously mounted murder mystery that features stylish direction and an interesting ensemble cast, but the story is confusing and exhausting and I'm pretty sure I had a birthday during its ungodly long running time.
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An eccentric billionaire named Miles Bron invites a small circle of friends to his lavish palace in the Greek Islands for a murder mystery weekend. The guests include a disgraced supermodel named Birdie Jay, a scientist named Lionel Toussaint, the owner of a boner pill franchise named Duke, a smart savvy politician named Claire, and a woman named Andi trying to warn the other guests of danger. Also invited to the party is Detective Benoit Blanc, the central character from Knives Out who is invited to the party as well, but not by Bron. When two of the guests end up dead, it's up to Blanc to step up and figure out what's going on.
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First of all, I LOVED Knives Out and gave it a rating of 5, proving that Johnson was a filmmaker to be reckoned with, but it's unclear exactly what went wrong here. Number one, it's always a bad sign when a film with its roots in another film, has to put that film's title in the new film's title. The film seems to suffer from "sequel-itis", which is an attempt to duplicate the success of a film by making a sequel that's bigger and better. Technically, it isn't even a sequel because Blanc is the only character from Knives Out that appears in this fim.
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Johnson's screenplay does take time to set up the characters who are Bron's guests but we're never sure whether these people really owe everything have to Bron or if they all have reasons to want Bron dead. And as wealthy as Bron is, it's hard to understand why he would want to set one of these people up for his death, but he does say he's only going to be dead for the weekend, which makes what's going on very confusing. The film flashes forward and back at an alarming pace that makes it hard to know what's going on. At this point, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going and the rest of the film is just very expensive filler, mounted with first rate production values, unlike Knives Out, a true mystery where the identity of the killer had me in the dark to the final frame of the film.
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Johnson's skill with a camera is evident throughout, thanks to superb assistance from his cinematographer and film editor. Daniel Craig gives another take charge performance as Blanc that lights up the screen. Edward Norton is dazzling as Miles Bron and Kate Hudson is all kinds of fun as Birdy. Janelle Monae nails a dual role and former WWF wrestler Dave Bautista is a lot of fun as Duke. There are also cameo appearances from Serena Williams, Hugh Grant, Natasha Lyonne, Stephen Sondheim, Kareem Abduhl-Jabar and, in her final film appearance, Angela Lansbury. It's no Knives Out, but there is entertainment to be mined for here. 3.5

Gideon58

12-29-22, 01:26 PM

My Man Godfrey (1936)
The 1936 screwball comedy My Man Godfrey is so skillfully mounted by the director of Stage Door and features such rich performances that it more than lives up to its reputation, including being one the few romantic comedies in movie history that received six Oscar nominations.
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Set during the Depression, the film stars the delicious Carole Lombard as Irene Bullock, a scatterbrained young heiress who is participating in a scavenger hunt where one of the items to be found is a "forgotten man" (or what we would refer today as homeless). She and her snooty sister, Cornelia go to the city dump to find a forgotten man where Cornelia offers Godfrey (William Powell) $5 to return to the scavenger hunt with her. He politely turns down Cornelia's $5, but does agree to return with Irene, who offers him a job as the butler, where he turns the household upside down and offers several surprises for the family during his tenure as butler.
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The screenplay, based on a novel called 110 Park Avenue is rich with witty dialogue, physical comedy, and eccentric characters that moves at a nice pace. The story immediately intrigues because when we first meet Godfrey at the city dump, we know there is more to Godfrey than meets the eye and can't wait to see how it's going to come to cinematic fruition. The other thing I loved about this story is that the man is the one being chased. Irene makes no bones about her attraction to Godfrey and it's hysterically funny that whenever he's paying attention to anyone but her, she bursts into tears.
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Director Gregory La Cava has mounted a witty comedy of manners that establishes what is supposed to happen in the first ten minutes of the film, but throws in various red herrings to keep us guessing. We keep waiting for backstory on Godfrey and we expect an out and out rivalry to form between Irene and Cornelia, but neither of these things really happen. It's also fun watching Godfrey assume his duties as butler and completely disguise any romantic feelings he might have for Irene, though we know they're there.
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For those who like to keep track of such things, this was the first film in Oscar history to receive nominations in all four acting categories. William Powell's sophisticated and smart Godfrey earned him a lead actor nomination and Carole Lombard's ditzy Irene earned her a lead actress nomination. Mischa Auer's eccentric Carlo earned him a supporting actor nomination and Alice Brady earned a supporting nomination for her sparkling performance as Irene and Cornelia's mother. Gail Patrick and Eugene Pallette also deserve shout outs for their work as Cornelia and the Bullock family patriarch, respectively. A comedy classic anchored by Powell and the amazing Carole Lombard. The film was remade in 1957 with David Niven and June Allyson and even though I haven't seen that version, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it: stick to the original. 4

Gideon58

12-30-22, 12:59 PM

The Banshees of Inisherin
From the people who brought us In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri comes 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin, a dark and bittersweet tale of a broken friendship, mounted on a breathtaking canvas, that simultaneously confuses and rivets the viewer as it builds to a fever pitch with a climax we definitely don't see coming.
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Set off the cost of Ireland, this is the story of Padraic (Collin Farrell) and Colm (Brendon Gleeson), lifelong friends whose friendship comes to an impasse when Colm calmly announces that he no longer wants to be Padraic's friend, Padraic is confused because he doesn't know what he did, but Colm makes some shocking and unpredictable moves in an attempt to have Padraic take him seriously. It is Padraic's confusion and Colm's tight-lipped silence about what he's doing that turns the re-building of a friendship into a war.
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First of all, compliments to director and screenwriter Martin McDonaugh for the look of this film. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at and cinematographer Ben Davis should be a lock for an Oscar nomination for his flawless work here. This is another one of those movies filled with shots that look like paintings. Equally impressive were scenes that foreshadowed what was coming but we don't realize it as we're watching.
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The unusual hook of this story is that we're never told exactly why Colm wants to end his friendship with Padraic which should aggravate the viewer to the point of tuning out, but in this instance, it only fuels the story's power and just makes us want more than anything than to see the problems with these two resolve themselves. Also loved the fact that two of the central characters in the story are animals...initially coming off as scenery dressing, we are surprised that, as the film progresses, Colm's dog and Padraic's baby donkey become important story elements. The story quietly builds to a jaw-dropping climax that left this reviewer limp.
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Colin Farrell could finally earn his first Oscar nomination for his spellbinding performance as Pedraic, the first time I have seen him completely lose himself inside a role and Gleeson is equally compelling as Colm, and though I don't see them both getting nominations, they both deserve nods. A Best Picture nomination is not out of the realm possibility either. Mention should also be made of Kerry Kondon as Padraic's sister Siobahn and Barry Keoghan, who starred with Farrell in The Killing of a Sacred Deer as the severely damaged Dominic. Carter Burwell's music is the icing on this riveting and often chilling cinematic piece of cake. 4

Takoma11

12-30-22, 02:32 PM

Have you seen Calvary?

Gideon58

01-02-23, 01:04 PM

No, I haven't

Gideon58

01-02-23, 01:38 PM

The Boston Strangler (1968)
Some really interesting and inventive direction and a first rate cast make the offbeat docudrama about suspected murderer/rapist Albert De Salvo entitled The Boston Strangler seem like a lot better film than it is.
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As the 1968 film opens, a group of Boston police detectives are investigation the brutal murders of women in the Boston area that eventually grows to 13 victims. The investigation ends up leading to a man named Albert De Salvo who, instead of being arrested, is institutionalized, suspected of being unfit for trial. John Bottomly, the head of the task force investigating the murders is not happy that he hasn't gotten a confession out of the man nor that his alleged prognosis of DID is legitimate and takes it upon himself to meet one on one with the killer to find out exactly who De Salva is.
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Screenwriter Edward Analt, who won an adapted screenplay Oscar for 1964's Beckett, falters a bit here with a story that starts off promisingly as a genuine docudrama as we find a team of police detectives baffled by some very brutal murders and, in the first half of the film, come up with one suspect after the other. All of a sudden at the halfway point of the film, we meet De Salvo and discover that he is probably the Strangler, but combined with the fact that we've already seen multiple suspects and De Salvo claims to not remember anything that happened to these women, the viewer is scratching is head. We never see where the investigation actually closes in on De Salvo, which makes the second half of the film hard to accept as fact-based.
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What does work here is some really terrific direction by Richard Fleischer (Compulsion, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing) that features an almost exhausting use of the split screen technique that director Gordon Douglas introduced in Pillow Talk, but Fleischer takes it to a whole new level here. The film technique does require undivided attention from the viewer as we get several split screens of the attacker approaching a victim's door while the victim is innocently on the other side of the screen. Fleischer's approach to the sessions with Bottomly and De Salvo also have a dash of originality as we observe Bottomly sometimes actually enter De Salvo's nightmares and recollections. Despite some impressive cinematic pyrotechnics, we never get what we want from this film...a confession from De Salvo.
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Fleischer also seems to have put a lot of thought into his practically perfect cast as well. Tony Curtis is simultaneously bone-chilling and heartbreaking as De Salvo and Henry Fonda is the perfect moral center of the film as Bottomly. Dozens of other familiar faces pop up along the way including George Kennedy, Murray Hamilton, Mike Kellin, Sally Kellerman, George Furth, Carole Shelley, James Brolin, Jeff Corey, William Marshall, Richard X Slattery, William Hickey, and two future cast members of the daytime drama The Young and the Restless, Jeanne Cooper and Carolyn Conwell. The film doesn't deliver what it seems to promise, but it is so well directed and acted that we stay invested. 3.5

Takoma11

01-02-23, 01:43 PM

No, I haven't

I really enjoyed it--great performance from Gleeson.

I thought about the same as you in terms of The Boston Strangler. I didn't care for some of the way that the killings were shown, as I felt they leaned a bit exploitative. It's been a long time, but is there a part where he rips a woman's dress down the front while holding her from behind? I didn't like the way that the camera centered on her body.

Gideon58

01-02-23, 03:24 PM

Yes, there was a scene exactly like that. I think they wanted to show more than that, to imply that De Salvo raped her as well as murdered her. That was probably all they were allowed to show in 1968.

Gideon58

01-03-23, 03:38 PM

Chelsea Handler: Revolution
Chelsea Handler returns to the standup mike for the first time in two years in an anger-fueled evening of standup called Chelsea Handler: Revolution.
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Shot from Nashville, Tennessee, Handler comes onstage dressed in an unflattering, black romper and powder blue Nikes, getting off to a strong start talking about the aftereffects of the Pandemic and more, specifically, the effects on her love life. If the truth be told, the majority of Handler's material seems to find its basis in the fact that at 47 years of age, she is still unmarried and childless. Ironically, not long after directing this special for Handler, Joy Ko and Handler broke up.
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This is my first exposure to Handler as a standup and there is a lot to admire here. The comedienne is a talented wordsmith like Jerry Seinfeld and her delivery is crisp and sharp and she never breaks my most important rule for standup, she never laughs at herself. One thing that is a bit off putting about her style is that there is a slight arrogance to her delivery, which causes her to construct a definite wall between her and the audience. There's a point later in the concert where someone in the balcony yells something at her and she gives the person a brief glance and ignores them. She informs the audience about her world but she never lets them in to experience it with her.
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I have to admit that I fell off my chair when she mentioned that for the longest time she thought the sun and the moon were the same thing. She offers a lot of strong material about rescue animals, which she reminds us is the only way celebrities are allowed to have dogs. Her story about a battle for the affections of her dogs Bertrand and Bernice with her housekeeper provides some big laughs.
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She begins to lose me during the final third of the show where she goes into straight up man bashing, stating that men are such pigs that they are actually having heterosexual women considering lesbianism. This section of the show seemed to be pandering to her largely white female audience, though I have to admit that I did chuckle when she stated that if there were any straight white men in the audience, it was because their girlfriends made them come. Handler's comedy would be a lot funnier if it wasn't based in so much anger. She needs to be reminded that she's not Dave Chappelle. 3.5

Gideon58

01-04-23, 06:49 PM

Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling
Richard Pryor's intentions seemed pure, but his work as producer director, co-screenwriter, and star of 1986's Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling, a fictionalized look at Pryor's life that is really an overheated and melodramatic mess that found this reviewer stifling the occasional yawn.
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In 1980, Richard Pryor poured rum all over himself and set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine. This film opens with the fictional version of himself, Jo Jo Dancer, being brought to the emergency room and treated for his injuries after the accident. While in a comatose state, we see Jo Jo's soul leave his body for an out of body experience where we are treated to a look at Dancer's life from being raised by his grandmother, who runs a whorehouse, to his humble beginnings in nightclubs, through his career, various marriages, and the drug abuse that put him in the hospital at the beginning of the film.
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It's perfectly understandable that, after what Pryor went through, that he would want to work out his demons that brought him to the point that it did. If he really wanted to look at his life honestly, I would think he wouldn't fictionalize himself. Everybody already knew what happened to him, Richard Pryor's life was tabloid fodder for decades, what was the point of trying to fictionalize himself onscreen? Even worse than the unnecessary fictionalization is the fierce protection that Pryor provides for himself through a screenplay that suggests that everything bad that happened to Pryor in his life was somebody else's fault.
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The film also confuses as the story frantically switches from Jo Jo's childhood, to Jo Jo's soul advising him throughout the flashbacks about what he should be doing but ignoring most of the advice, and checking on his condition at the hospital. During the first half of the film, Jo Jo acts like a spoiled and not too bright teenager. He confronts a nightclub owner with a starter pistol when the guy won't pay him. This is also the first film I've seen where Pryor appears in drag, a scene that provided surprisingly few laughs. The only scene in this movie that made me laugh out loud was a scene early on in the film on a nightclub stage where Jo Jo does an imitation of a baby being born.
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Considering all the hats Pryor wore for this production, it's no surprise that his performance was overripe. He looked completely stressed out throughout this film, unable to conceal the tension in bringing this project to fruition. Debbie Allen, Barbara Williams, and Paula Kelly make the most of their roles as varied women in Jo Jo's life and I was impressed by a rare movie appearance from Scoey Mitchell as Jo Jo's father. This film could have been something spectacular if Pryor had been more honest about what he was doing. This film is why we still need an actual Richard Pryor biopic. 2.5

Gideon58

01-06-23, 12:53 PM

The Apology
Despite solid performances from the stars, the 2022 alleged thriller The Apology is a convoluted and talky film that starts off with an interesting premise, but eventually degenerates into a hard to swallow story of redemption and revenge that borrows from at least half a dozen other films.
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Darlene is a recovering alcoholic whose 16 year old daughter disappeared 20 years ago and is preparing to host Christmas at her house for the first time in 19 years with help from her neighbor, Gretchen. Christmas Eve brings up a lot of memories for Darlene and just as she is about to relapse after 19 years of sobriety, she is interrupted by a surprise visit from her ex-brother-in-law, Jack, who she hasn't seen in years, who arrives with a big secret that he wants to share in his own way.
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Director and screenwriter Allison Locke starts her story off strong by setting up the isolation of the story by taking its time taking us to Darlene's snow-buried home, which recalls the Overlook in The Shining. She then introduces us to a very sympathetic central character in Darlene who deserves a respite from 20 years of grief. But the arrival of this slimebucket Jack takes this story from the sublime to the ridiculous as it is revealed that he has arranged to trap Darlene in her home so that he can clear his conscience without suffering the consequences of his actions.
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In addition to The Shining, this story also borrows elements from films like Misery, Extremities, and Wait Until Dark has an initially challenging story becomes a standard lady in distress thriller where the lady eventually takes control of the situation and still gives her antagonist the opportunity to justify his actions. The story loses me completely when she has the chance to turn this guy in, but prefers closure to justice.
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Locke's story has more than a few holes in it, most importantly, how did Jack secure Darlene's house and kill her phone before his arrival, but this became the least of this movie's problems as it got dumber and dumber with each scene. Anna Gunn, who has won two Emmys for her role as Skyler White on Breaking Bad delivers a superb performance as Darlene, rising above the mediocrity of the material she is provided and is well-matched by Linus Roache as Jack, but this grade Z Stephen King ripoff takes the viewer down a very dark hole from which they aren't really allowed to escape. 2.5

Takoma11

01-06-23, 07:29 PM

Agreed. The plot pushes too many unbelievable things at us.

For me, the biggest issue was just believing that this guy would ever confess. Especially since he's still clearly in denial that what he did was his fault and wrong.

I thought that the part at the beginning where he seemed to have this demented idea that confessing to her would bring them closer together. Because at least that is profoundly messed up and insane. But from there on he just seems like this selfish guy who has a narrative about what he did that puts as much blame on his victim as possible.

I never felt like I understood what his plan was

Gideon58

01-07-23, 07:58 PM

The Mosquito Coast
A beautifully unhinged performance by Harrison Ford in the starring role makes a 1986 drama called The Mosquito Coast worth a look.
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Ford plays Allie Fox, an eccentric inventor who resides in a small farming community, who is sick of the rat race and is disgusted by the direction in which America is heading. One day he impulsively decides to uproot his wife and four children and take a cruise to a small town in Central America, that he actually purchases, renames Geronimo and embarks on constructing the Utopian community of his dreams, even though he doesn't really clue his family in on his plan, but demands complete and unconditional obedience from them until his dream takes a couple of dangerous turns that he doesn't see coming.
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Paul Schrader's screenplay, adapted from a novel by Paul Theroux, does contain a dash of originality, edge, and challenge, taking the viewer into new cinematic territory. The most troubling aspect of the story is the absence of, what should have been a crucial part of this story. We never get a scene where Allie sits down with his family and tells them exactly what they're going to do before they do it. Even though it is set up that if this scene had occurred, Allie would have lied to his family about what's going, it seemed like a missed opportunity for some high octane drama during the opening scenes. We could have also done without son Charlie's narration, which was unnecessary and seemed to be bringing the Allie character an element of sympathy that I'm not sure he deserved.
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Despite the character's unsympathetic quality, it is this Allie Fox character that makes this movie worth the investment. We've seen a lot of characters over the years like this...a grumpy angry know-it-all who thinks the world is going to hell in a hand basket and thinks he has a solution though nobody will really listen to him. Love the early scene where he goes into a hardware store to purchase something and goes off on the poor clerk (Seinfeld's Jason Alexander) because the item he brought him wasn't made in America. He treats his family like employees or soldiers, barking out orders and expecting blind acceptance of what he says. At one point, his younger son sees a chance to escape his misery for a brief respite and his father says fine, but if he does, he is never to come back. The character is also a bit of a sexist, evidenced in his always referring to his wife (Oscar winner Helen Mirren) as "Mother." If memory serves, I don't think we ever actually learn what her name is.
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Director Peter Weir, who also directed Ford in his only Oscar-nominated performance in Witness, provides a breathtaking canvas for this story to materialize, unfortunately, a lot of what goes on in the construction of this Utopia isn't all that interesting and often we can't even tell exactly what Fox and his people are doing. The film does bounce back for a solid final act, commencing with a deadly hurricane.
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Harrison Ford has rarely commanded the screen the way he does in a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination. Helen Mirren employs another perfect American accent in her thankless roles as Mother and the late River Phoenix holds his own against Ford as his seemingly loyal son Charlie. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief cameo by Butterfly McQueen, as a resident of Geronimo, that would be her final feature film appearance. It starts out great and the ending is haunting, but it does sag in the middle, but Harrison Ford makes it worth watching. It was reimagined as a television show in 2021.
3.5

Citizen Rules

01-07-23, 08:41 PM

The Mosquito Coast
A beautifully unhinged performance by Harrison Ford in the starring role makes a 1986 drama called The Mosquito Coast worth a look.
rating_3_5I've been meaning to rewatch that for the longest time. I seen it only once and that was at the theater back in 1986. I remember liking it really well. Glad to see you liked it too.

KeyserCorleone

01-07-23, 08:59 PM

If you like Weir, check out The Last Wave.

Gideon58

01-09-23, 12:47 PM

The Menu
With the director of the HBO series Succession behind the camera and a screenplay influenced by Stephen King and Agatha Christie, the 2022 thriller The Menu is a spine-tingling roller coaster ride that despite some story inconsistencies, found this reviewer riveted to the screen for the entire running time. Will attempt to review this film without spoilers.
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A young couple named Tyler and Margot are among a very select group of guests who have paid $1250 a plate to take a boat to a remote island that is the location of a very special restaurant called Hawthorne. They are joined there by an arrogant food critic and the editor of the magazine she writes for, an unhappily married couple named Richard and Anne, a cocky movie star and his personal assistant, and three young crooked businessmen. It's not long after the first couple of courses that these people find they are in store for a lot more than a gourmet meal.
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Screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy have given us a complex and sometimes confusing story that unfolds very slowly, offering tiny hints to what's going on without giving everything away all at once. Our first clue that all is not as it appears is that Tyler has been living for this event and date Margot is less than thrilled. Then we learn that Margot was not Tyler's original date for this event. Then during the third course of the meal, the diners are served tortillas that have events from the guests' lives sculpted on them. Loved the way each course was written on the screen for the viewer like a movie card in a Woody Allen movie. The Chef's staff was beyond creepy, almost like soldiers or robots, for which little backstory is provided, but how they got where they are becomes irrelevant.
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Director Mark Mylod, who directed most of the HBO series Succession, is to be applauded for his meticulous mounting of this suspenseful and creepy movie that made the hair on the back of neck stand up. The film is beautifully photographed featuring Oscar-worthy cinematography and film editing. The editing really shines whenever the camera is focused on the courses being prepared. Mylod's attention to the preparation of the food in this movie makes cooking seem like a religion that not all can be a part of. However, it becomes apparent pretty quickly that Tyler wants to be a part of this religion, but it is never to be. As it becomes clear what's happening here, we are saddened as the rest of the principals quietly accept it too.
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Mylod gathers an interesting ensemble cast to bring his vision to life. headed by Ralph Fiennes in an absolutely bone-chilling turn as Chef that should, but won't, earn him an Oscar nomination. Anya Taylor-Joy's gutsy Margot demands attention as does Nicholas Hoult's almost child-like Tyler. Also loved Janet McTeer as the food critic and John Leguizamo as the movie star. Influence from other classic films is evident here, but this is an original work that grips the viewer, even if all the questions posed aren't answered. 4

Takoma11

01-09-23, 07:20 PM

I was really surprised to find myself giving it a 4. It seems like it should be a 3, maybe a 3.5 max.

But I really had a good time during it and was drawn to its weird energy.

Gideon58

01-10-23, 02:15 PM

Staircase (1969)
Despite a talky and muddled screenplay and surprisingly pedestrian direction, the 1969 drama Staircase is still worth a look because of the two Hollywood legends in the lead roles, playing characters way out of their comfort zone.
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This is the story of Charlie and Harry, two gay hairdressers on London's West End who have lived together above their shop for over twenty years. Charlie is a former actor who is terrified about the impending visit of his daughter and about criminal charges that have been brought against him for lewd public behavior. Harry is a terribly insecure man who is suffering from a hair loss disease called alopecia that has him so self conscious he wears a towel wrapped around his head 24/7. He is also being driven insane being the primary caregiver of his bedridden mother, who lives across the hall from him and Charlie.
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The novelty of this film is that the two central characters are played by actors one would have never imagined accepting these kind of roles. Charlie is played by Oscar winner Rex Harrison and Harry is played by seven time Oscar nominee Richard Burton, who don't completely lose themselves in these roles but they understand Charlie and Harry and aid in making the audience understand them. Both actors employ an effective physicality to their roles that borders on the cliche, but never goes over the top. Despite the fact that Charlie and Harry spend the majority of the film sniping at each other, we never for a minute doubt the love they have for each other, sort of a gay version of George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
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The screenplay by Charles Dyer, based on his own play, is talky and a bit hard to follow thanks to Charlie and Harry's fights jumping from one subject to another at an exhausting pace and a lot of British slang that this reviewer was unfamiliar with and never really escapes its stage origins, as we watch Charlie and Harry hopping around the neighborhood from scene to scene for no good reason. The film also suffers from rather unimaginative direction from the legendary Stanley Donen, probably the weakest work of his career.
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The film appears to have been made on a shoestring budget, most of which probably went to the salaries for Burton and Harrison to agree to do this. Harrison has a little difficulty hiding a slight discomfort with this role, but Burton is an absolute joy to watch in this dated and turgid potboiler that will only hold interest for hardcore Burton and Harrison fans. In terms of cinema history, a curio to be sure. 2.5

Gideon58

01-11-23, 06:37 PM

Sam & Kate
The novelty of having two Oscar-winning actors sharing the screen with their real life offspring is the primary hook for a 2022 drama called Sam & Kate, a sweet and sad drama that without this very special hook, would have been a pretty mundane film experience.
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This is the story of Sam (Jake Hoffman), an aspiring artist who moves back to his hometown so that he can take care of his ailing father (Dustin Hoffman). One day, Sam meets a pretty bookstore owner named Kate (Schuyler Fisk) who is trying to deal with what she considers a secret shame that her mother, Tina (Sissy Spacek) is a hoarder.
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Director and screenwriter Darren Le Gallo (Date Night) has taken what is an ordinary and not terribly interesting story and given it some depth through the casting of two great actors acting opposite their real life children. Unfortunately, without this clever casting of the four leads, this film would have been a crashing bore. The first half of the film moves at a deadening pace where we keep waiting for something to happen. If the truth be told, we are so distracted by the fact that Hoffman and Spacek are performing with their real children, that we really don't notice how boring this story is.
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I found myself so fascinated by how Jake and Schuyler looked EXACTLY like their parents. There's a scene near the end of the film where Schuyler is singing and playing the piano off-camera and just hearing her voice, you would swear you were listening to a discarded audio track from Coal Miner's Daughter. Jake has a couple of moments in the film as well where he sounded just like his dad as Benjamin Braddock. Though the love of their children comes shining through in every frame, Dustin and Sissy never forget what they were supposed to be doing up there. Watch Hoffman after he learns Sam and Kate spent the night together or especially Sissy when Kate and the movers arrive to clean out her house. Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek are two Hollywood veterans who still know how to command a screen. I also loved seeing Sissy, who looked 17 years old for almost 30 years, aging so beautifully and looking incredible.
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The film features Oscar-worthy cinematography and I loved the music too. Schuyler Fisk, daughter of Sissy Spacek and set decorator Jack Fisk, lights up the screen as Kate and Jake Hoffman is undeniably charming as Sam, but if the truth be told, every moment Sissy Spacek has onscreen here makes this movie worth a look. 3

Gideon58

01-12-23, 06:43 PM

Notoroious (1946)
Alfred Hitchcock scores a bullseye with 1946's Notorious, a sizzling spy thriller that never lets its story of international espionage get in the way of the white hot chemistry between the stars.
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Three time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, a flighty and self absorbed party girl whose father has recently been convicted of being a Nazi spy, whose jumbled emotions about what happened to her father has her drowning her sorrows in booze and men. Cary Grant plays Devlin, a government agent who asks Alicia to participate in a mission to gather information on some scientists in Rio de Janeiro. Alicia's life is forever complicated and put in danger when one of these men, one Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains) falls in love with her and proposes marriage, though Alicia's heart belongs to Devlin, who fights his feelings for Alicia as hard as he can.
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Ben Hecht's Oscar nominated screenplay is a perfect combination of spy thriller and romantic melodrama as a story that initially seems to be about spy hunting eventually wittles down to an intense romantic triangle that found this viewer more emotionally invested in the story than in the beginning. There are few things more appealing to film lovers than star-crossed lovers being kept apart for the majority of the running time and that's exactly what happens here. The attraction between Devlin and Alicia is swift and immediate but as the story progresses, we see them being pulled further and further apart until all we want is to see them in each other's arms where they belong.
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Hitchcock's camera also becomes an instrumental storytelling device here as the camera guides the viewer in what they should be paying attention to and away from what isn't as important as we might think it is. There are scenes with actors reciting dialogue while the camera is following keychains and coffee cups, guiding us to what we should really be paying attention. I also loved the scene where Devlin and Alicia are looking for something in the wine cellar alternate with shots of a tray of champagne bottles dwindling away, possibly causing the butler, Joseph, to go down to the wine cellar to get more and when he and Sebastian do, what happens isn't even close to what we expect.
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But what makes this film worth investing in is the incredible chemistry between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman which burns a hole in the screen. Every moment they spend onscreen together is so electric that we can't stand seeing them torn apart as the story progresses. The complexity of the Alexander character is also intriguing. He initially come off as the dangerously obsessed husband of Alicia initially arousing fear for Alicia, but is eventually revealed to be under the thumb of his mother, who really seems to wear the pants in the house, giving the Alexander character a pathetic quality, which evokes an element of sympathy into the character we really don't see coming.
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Ingrid Bergman was robbed of a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her luminous performance as Alicia that lights up the screen. This character is smart and funny and lonely and vulnerable and Bergman captures all of it. I haven't seen a lot of Bergman's work, but of what I have seen, this is my favorite performance of hers. Cary Grant scores in one of his most cold-blooded characterizations. This guy buries his emotions and is all about his work, a character that is kind of foreign territory for Grant but he makes it work. Claude Rains earned one of his four Best Supporting Actor nominations for his richly intense Alexander Sebastian. Kudos as well to Louis Calhern as a fellow agent of Devlin's, Leopoldine Konstantin as Sebastian's mother, and Alexis Minotis as Joseph, the creepy butler. A classic that more than lived up to its reputation and probably one of Hitchcock's most underrated works. 4

Gideon58

01-13-23, 03:46 PM

Spoiler Alert
One thing I didn't see onscreen in 2022 was a good old fashioned love story, but I finally got one. In the grand tradition of films like the 1970 classic Love Story comes a love story with a contemporary twist called Spoiler Alert, a funny and often moving romantic comedy/drama that provides everything a moviegoer would expect from a love story...except for the fact that the lovers are gay men.
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This is the story of Michael Ausiello, a former fatty and writer for TV Guide obsessed with Smurfs and the TV show Felicity who meets and falls in love with Kit Cowan, an effervescent and commitment shy artist and ad executive who has never come out to his parents. Michael and Kit meet at a bar, initiating a slow burn relationship that lasts 13 years until they separate after failed attempts at counseling while learning almost immediately afterwards that Kit has contracted a terminal disease. This story is intermingled with Michael's personal vision of the 80's sitcom that he thought his life really was.
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The real Michael Ausiello wrote the book upon which this movie was based titled Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, which was adapted into a screenplay by David Marshall Grant (who makes a cameo in the film as the guys' therapist) and Dan Savage that presents this love story on an unimaginative canvas, but dresses it up by quirking up the story in unexpected and layered ways that the viewer doesn't see coming. It was annoying when Kit's "hag", Nina, seemed to resent Michael's presence in Kit's life, but that became irrelevant quickly. Loved the look on Kit's face when he saw Michael's apartment for the first time. Especially loved when Michael bawked at his first attempt at sex with Kit because of body issues he has about being a former fatty, something I could really relate to. Loved when Michael threw the hissy fit in the hospital about a special bed for Kit and told him, "It worked for Shirley MacLaine."
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Director Michael Showalter (Hello My Name is Doris), has mounted this story with warmth and sensitivity, providing just enough humor to keep the story from becoming bathed in tragedy like Terms of Endearment. I also liked the fact that Kit was allowed to die of something besides AIDS, which gave the story appeal and avoided a lot of the preachiness and melodrama that AIDS would have brought to the film. Also loved the 11th hour twist that came during the last ten minutes, which I didn't see coming at all, but considering the title of the movie, I should have.
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Jim Parsons, who impressed last year in the remake of The Boys in the Band offers a compelling and vividly human performance that works in perfect tandem with Ben Aldridge's sparkling performance as Kit. They are offered terrific support from Sally Field and Bill Irwin as Kit's parents and Showalter's sensitive directorial touch help to make this first major love story of 2022 something really special. So for those of you who are wondering what happened to the old fashion movie love story, look no further. 4

Takoma11

01-13-23, 06:08 PM

Man, I know it's bias, but Big Bang Theory ick really keeps me from wanting to watch him in anything else. Unfair, I know.

And Notorious is so good.

Gideon58

01-13-23, 06:33 PM

I have never watched a single episode of The Big Bang Theory but I still loved this movie.

Takoma11

01-13-23, 09:04 PM

I have never watched a single episode of The Big Bang Theory but I still loved this movie.

I've only seen a few clips (and a YouTube essay about its weird misogyny) and it's enough to put me off of basically everyone from the cast.

Again, probably not fair.

gbgoodies

01-14-23, 12:28 AM

I've seen every single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" multiple times. It's one of my all-time favorite shows.

That's what made me go looking for the movie Spoiler Alert, as soon as I heard that Jim Parsons was starring in it. I loved this movie, but it's hard to see Jim Parsons in anything else without thinking of him as Sheldon Cooper.

Gideon58

01-14-23, 09:01 PM

The Ice Storm
Nuanced direction and some superb performances from an excellent ensemble cast make 1997's The Ice Storm, a moody and prickly story of suburban dysfunction and the changing sexual mores of the 1970 worth watching.
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The setting is 1973 New Canan, Connecticut, a small suburban town where we meet several different characters who are connected in various ways as several secrets about these people quietly simmer to the surface: Ben Hood (Oscar winner Kevin Kline) and his wife, Elena (Joan Allen) seem to be accepting the death of their marriage, which manifests itself in Ben's affair with neighbor Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver), who is not only married to Jim (Jamey Sheridan), but cheating on Ben with young Neil Conrad (Glenn Fitzgerald). Ben and Elena's young daughter, Wendy (Christina Ricci) is experimenting sexually with the Carvers' son, Mike (Elijah Wood) and his brother, Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd),while Ben and Elena's son, Paul (Tobey Maguire) finds himself in a compromising situation with the girl of his dreams (Katie Holmes). And let's not forget what happens when the adults in the story attend a "key party."
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The screenplay by James Schamus, based on a novel by Rick Moody, is a fascinating look at an era in our society when all kinds of exploration was going on regarding sex and its seamless boundaries, which were brought back to strict rules, thanks primarily to the advent of the AIDS crisis. This was a time when sex was in a time of flux, where classic interpretations of sexuality were re-opened for interpretation and not everyone was ready for it. Admittedly, we don't get any backstory about where the Hoods marriage went south, but it turns out to be irrelevant. There's also a scene early on where Elena is observed shoplifting some cosmetic in a pharmacy that I thought would be addressed later on in the film, but it never was.
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Director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility; Brokeback Mountain) brings the same delicate detail to this story that he did those other films. Love the photography of the ice cycles clinging to everything in New Canaan, starting to melt, but fighting it every step of the way. The symbolic chill over New Canan is just as effective as the natural hazards that this chilling weather can cause. There's a scene where Mike is jumping on an icy diving board that leads to an emptied swimming pool that made my heart go straight into my shoes. The scene where the storm stopped the train on which Paul was traveling home for Thanksgiving also provided an unexpected chill. Paul's confrontation with his girl and best friend was also a highlight, and the sexual tension created during the key party was quite impressive. Also loved the tools Lee used to set the film...television sets in the movie are observed tuned into shows like The Time Tunnell and Room 222.
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Lee also manages to get first rate performances from his cast right down the line. Loved Kevin Kline as the stuffy and self-centered Ben, while Joan Allen was heartbreaking as the severely broken Elena. Christina Ricci impresses as the sexually curious Wendy, but the scene stealer here was 3 time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver as sexual pariah Janey. Weaver makes the most of limited screentime here with a blistering performance that dominates the film. Every time the story leaves Janey, we can't wait for her to come back. Frederick Elmes' gorgeous cinematography and Mychael Danna's moody music are the finishing touches on this suburban drama, for which fans of films like American Beauty and Revolutionary Road will have a heard start. 4

Takoma11

01-14-23, 10:05 PM

I really need to watch The Ice Storm again. I watched it as a teenager and just wasn't on the wavelength of the story it was telling.

Gideon58

01-16-23, 12:48 PM

Fall
Despite a promising action/thriller premise, 2022's Fall eventually dissolves into a puddle of unnecessary soap opera plot twists, hard to swallow roadblocks to rescue for the principals, and a way too convenient conclusion.
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Becky is a rock climber and adrenaline junkie who lost her husband, Dan in a rock climbing accident almost a year ago. Still paralyzed with grief, Becky does allow her fellow adrenaline junkie/BFF Hunter to talk her into climbing a 2000 feet tall radio tower so that she can spread her husband's ashes from the top of the tower. Unfortunately, the ladder outside the tower that they climbed to get up is destroyed and the two women find themselves stranded atop the tower with no way to get down.
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Director and co-screenwriter Scott Mann has come up with an intriguing idea here that starts off quite effectively, but the more the viewer actually thinks about what's happening here, the less sense it makes. Primarily, why would Becky agree to do this after watching her husband die falling off a mountain? After Becky and Hunter were atop the tower, nobody noticed her abandoned vehicle at the bottom of the tower before a couple jerks stole it? And this is just the tip of the nonsensical plot points that rolled around in my head as the story progressed.
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On the other side of the cinematic coin, the dilemma that these girls were in is very effectively mounted. Films like 127 Hours and Cliffhanger, flashed through my mind as I found myself physically affected by what I was watching. As a person who has suffered from a deathly fear of heights since I was a child, I found this movie initially very hard to watch. Mann does a superior job of keeping us in touch with how high in the air and how isolated Becky and Hunter are. I was so distracted by my fear of being so high in the air, it took me a little longer than viewers without a fear of heights to see how the film got progressively dumber and dumber.
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For an independent feature, most of the production values are first rate, especially the cinematography, though I did find the music a little overwrought, almost to the point of distraction. Grace Caroline Currey and Reese Witherspoon-look-a-like Virginia Gardner sink their teeth into the physically demanding roles of Becky and Hunter, respectively and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is terrific as Becky's father, but this film never legitimizes its premise. {Rating]3.5[/Rating]

Gideon58

01-18-23, 08:07 PM

Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy reunited after The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer for another deliciously entertaining comedy called Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, a sophisticated and witty comic romp that provides first rate entertainment.
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The 1948 film stars Grant as Jim Blandings, an advertising executive who lives in a cramped New York apartment with his wife, Muriel (Loy) and his two daughters. Against the advice of his pal, lawyer Bill Cole (Melvyn Douglas), Blandings impulsively decides to leave the city and buy a run down old house in Connecticut and rebuild it from the ground up. In addition to the nonstop headache and expense of building a house, Jim is also dealing with an advertising deadline that his job depends on and the nagging obsession that Muriel might be having an affair with Bill.
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This film shines thanks to an intelligent and imaginative screenplay, adapted from a novel by Eric Hodgins, by screenwriting veterans Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, whose credits include White Christmas, Knock on Wood, and The Court Jester. The story is rich with colorful dialogue as well as physical comedy that blend perfectly to serve a story that, on the surface, seems kind of uninteresting, but provides pretty consistent laughs for the entire running time.
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The Bill Cole character also serves as our host and narrator for the story, a narration that initially seems unnecessary. Bill is the first character we meet and he speaks directly to the camera, but his narration does make some interesting forays into the story. LOVED the scene where Jim and his family first arrive at the house and Jim gets into an argument with a worker varnishing the floor. but Bill's voice is substituted for the dialogue. Also loved the scene where Jim, Muriel, and Bill get locked in a closet still under construction and Loy is absolutely enchanting when she is describing the colors she wants to a contractor.
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The film is shot in exquisite black and white and I loved Leigh Harline's music as well. Grant and Loy are absolute perfection together as the Blandings, proving the chemistry they generated in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer was no fluke. Douglas steals every scene he's in, channeling Ralph Bellamy as Bill. Kudos as well to Reginald Denny as the architect Mr. Simms. Hume Cronyn-look-a-like Ian Wolfe as the real estate agent, and Louise Beavers as the family maid Gussie. Another classic from the golden age of cinema that still provides solid entertainment. The film was re-imagined in 1986 as The Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. 4

Gideon58

01-19-23, 08:55 PM

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
Guillermo Del Toro, who won two Oscars for producing and directing 2017's Oscar winner for Best Picture, The Shape of Water, has triumphed again with an exquisite re-imagining of a classic children story that was brought to the big screen by Disney Studios in 1940, but 2022's Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, is an animated masterpiece much darker and more realistic in its tone, but mounted with such imagination but still respecting the original story that it is probably a lock for the Outstanding Feature Length Animated Film Oscar and, if the truth be told, a Best Picture Oscar nomination is not out of the realm of possibility.
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Originally based on a book by Carlo Collodi, this is the story of Gepetto, an old Italian woodcarver who lost his son Carlo in a tragic accident and, in honor of him, decides to carve a male puppet in honor of Carlo but, still in a drunken stupor over Carlo's death, Gepetto is unable to finish the puppet and passes out. While Gepetto sleeps it off, a spell is put on the puppet making him a real son for Gepetto and naming him Pinocchio. Pinocchio is also awarded a guardian angel in the form of a cricket named Sebastian, who fancies himself a writer. As Gepetto puts the finishing touches on Pinocchio, he comes vividly to life as an educational sponge who wants to know the answers to everything, but defies Gepetto when, instead of going to school, he finds himself lured into show business by the evil owner of a carnival named Count Volpe.
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Del Toro has poured buckets of money, imagination, and state of the art production values into this production, guaranteeing that we don't just get a rehash of the 1940 Disney film. I liked that his screenplay with Patrick McHale began with backstory showing Gepetto's relationship with Carlo, which wasn't mentioned in the 1940 film. It reminded me of the introduction of Carl and his wife at the beginning of Up...just enough to establish the relationship but not going on too long.
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Loved when Pinocchio first comes to life and questions Gepetto regarding the definition of every single word Gepetto uses. Pinocchio's waffling between complete defiance of everything and complete desire to please Gepetto and why he couldn't do both rang totally true. This led to one troubling part of the story. After Pinocchio gets harassed at Gepetto's church (a heartbreaking scene, BTW, that reminded me of something out of The Elephant Man). Gepetto angrily refers to Pinocchio as a burden and magically, this is the only word that Pinocchio seems to magically be aware of the definition. But this is a small quibble in a film where there is so much more right than there is wrong.
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Most impressive was the richly gothic look of this movie, which I wasn't expecting at all. The animation in this film is dark and crisp and all of the characters look as if they from crafted from bone china until they actually start to move. Loved that in this film, Pinocchio actually looks like he's made out of wood. Gepetto's hair and beard appear like they are part of his face for a good chunk of the film and then in one remarkable, blink and you'll miss it moment, we see his hair being blown by the wind. Loved the way Pinocchio's nose grew when he would tell a lie...again, not what I expected. Also loved that Sebastian Cricket actually looked like an insect, not the cute little green bug singing "When You Wish Upon a Star." A bouquet to everyone associated with the sound on this movie, because simple sounds like a cup & saucer being shoved across a table or a gun being picked up that I actually noticed how authentic they sounded. And I swear my heart stopped at the beginning of the third act when we first see the whale rise from the sea.
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Despite Del Toro's astounding work here in bringing something new to a classic story, I have to wonder who the intended demographic for this movie was. Count Volpe's physical and emotional abuse of Pinocchio and his war training to battle Mussolini are not things I would want my child to see, but I guess I could see parents and children watching this together. As a piece of filmmaking, this is remarkable work from Del Toro and a flawless voice cast including Ewan MacGregor as Sebastian Cricket, Gregory Mann as Pinocchio, David Bradley as Gepetto and especially Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as Count Volpe. A one of a kind motion picture experience that arouses just about every emotion one can imagine during its running time, but well worth the journey. 4.5

Gideon58

01-20-23, 12:45 PM

Harold and Maude
The 1971 film Harold and Maude is a cult classic and I'm really not sure why because it took most of the running time for this reviewer to warm up to a story that made absolutely no sense, despite atmospheric direction and charismatic performances from the stars.
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This black comedy centers around a relationship between two people that would probably never happen IRL. Harold is a young man from a wealthy family who is obsessed with death. He loves to attend funerals of strangers, drives a hearse, and stages elaborate fake suicides in front of blind dates that his mother arranges. At one of these funerals, he meets Maude, a 79 year old woman who embraces life and loves to steal cars and drive them, despite the fact that she hasn't had a driver's license for 45 years.
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The screenplay for this bizarre story was the screenwriting debut of Colin Higgins, who would later write Silver Streak, Foul Play, and 9 to 5 ) that throws realism out the window and attempts to shock and amuse the viewer, but doesn't completely achieve either goal. About twenty minutes in, we realize that Harold needs to be institutionalized (even though he is pulling the wool over the eyes of a psychiatrist) and Maude needs to be in jail just for her antics on the highway. The scene where the pair manage to elude a motorcycle cop (Tom Skerritt, billed in the credits as M. Borman for some reason) is ridiculous, but is probably the only scene in the movie that produced out loud laughs.
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Director Hal Ashby (The Last Detail, Coming Home)mounts this nonsensical story on a very inviting canvas. The film features first rate production values that almost become dwarfed by a story about a love affair that would never happen in real life. This film initially bored and confused me because, at first glance, neither of these central characters should be out and about doing whatever they're doing. Most people would kill to live the life that Harold has and he has nothing but contempt for it. At one point his mother tries to replace his hearse with a Ferrari and five minutes later, he is driving the hearse again. Maude steals a car at one point so she can uproot a tree growing in a business area and re-plant it in a forest. It wasn't until the final third of the film that I really understood what Higgins and Ashby were doing here and that's way too late to get what's going on in a 90 minute movie. A couple of twists near the end don't really register the way they should have.
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Ruth Gordon, fresh off her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for Rosemary's Baby is a joy as Maude and Bud Cort completely invests in the defective Harold. Also loved Vivian Pickles as Harold's mother and Charles Styner as Harold's one-armed uncle, but I still don't understand the cult status this film has earned. 3

Takoma11

01-20-23, 06:09 PM

I really like Harold and Maude. Ultimately it's a film about how we react to the life and time we are given. And once you have the full scope of it, it's an incredibly rewarding film to rewatch.

Gideon58

01-21-23, 04:21 PM

Disenchanted
Doesn't the phrase "And they lived happily ever after" imply the end of a story? Apparently not, because Disney Studios have dusted off their surprise 2007 hit Enchanted and brought us Disenchanted an overblown and unnecessary sequel to Enchanted that instead of providing us with a viable new story, pretty much just rehashes the first film and doesn't even do that effectively.
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Amy Adams returns to inhabit one of her most popular roles as Princess Giselle, the animated princess from Andulasia who finds her Prince Charming in a sexy lawyer named Robert (Patrick Dempsey) who has a young daughter named Morgan. For some reason, Robert and Giselle who in addition to raising Morgan together now have a baby of their own named Sophia. have decided to give up living in Manhattan and move to a small suburb called Monroeville, which the now sullen teenage Morgan is not at all happy about. Shortly after their arrival in Monroeville, Giselle innocently makes a wish that Monroeville was more like Andulasia and as the wish comes true, Monroeville begins morphing into Andulasia and poor Giselle finds herself turning into her worst nightmare: a wicked stepmother which begins to seriously damage her relationship with Morgan and husband Robert fighting dragons and trying to protect the town from the evil Malvina (Maya Rudolph).
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The Disney gloss, very similar to the MGM gloss that helped make their musicals in the 40's and 50's so special, does very little to disguise how unnecessary this sequel is. In the first film, Giselle found her prince in Robert, stealing him effortlessly from Robert's snooty fiancee, Nancy (Idina Menzel), who did eventually find happiness with Prince Edward (James Marsden). As a matter of fact, the first ten minutes of this film tells us exactly what happened in the first film, never a good sign for a sequel. We then see Giselle working very hard to keep her new family together with the help of a magic scroll (delightfully voiced by Alan Tudyk) while poor Robert finds himself doing everything that he hated doing in the first film.
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For some reason, Pip, Giselle's adorable pet from the first film is turned into an overweight cat and Malvina is given a pair of flying monkeys named Ruby (Jayma Mays) and Rosaleen (Yvette Nicole Brown) to do her bidding. And despite everything that happened in the first film, Morgan is conveniently calling Giselle Mother at the beginning of the story in order to validate Giselle's transformation into a wicked stepmother.
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The most enjoyable aspect of this film is Adams' terrific performance as Giselle, where we see the poor thing terrified as she sees the wicked stepmother persona try to overtake her normally sunshine ad sugar personality that enchanted everyone in the first film. The screenplay cleverly allows Giselle's transformation to occur slowly, sometimes in the fork of just a couple of words that slip out of Giselle's mouth without her realizing it and unable to control.
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The main problem here is the main problem with most sequels: Sequel-itis, that idiotic filmmaking concept that in order to make a sequel, it has to be bigger, longer and provide twice as much as the first film did and it kills this film to the point of complete exhaustion, where this reviewer found himself actually nodding off a couple of times ad having to rewind to catch what I missed.
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As with the first film, there is a serviceable music score by Alan Mencken (The Little Mermaid) and Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) that serves the story but it's nothing special. Did enjoy a spectacular duet with Adams and Rudolph called "Badder" that brought the house down.
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Production values are serious including stunning set designs and costumes. Adams works very hard keeping Giselle sweet and lovable, but Dempsey is phoning it in as Robert. If the truth be told, he looks embarrassed to be involved in this debacle. Marsden and Medina' roles as Edward and Nancy have been reduced to glorified cameos and Rudolph's cartoon character villain wasn't anywhere as near as fun as Susan Sarandon in 2007. For hardcore fans of Adams only. 2.5

KeyserCorleone

01-21-23, 04:25 PM

I kind of enjoyed Harold and Maude's outlandishness. The whole movie bases itself on the ridiculousness all being TECHNICLLY plausible, and that's what makes it wild, and that's what makes it funny.

Takoma11

01-21-23, 04:34 PM

Bummer about Disenchanted. I enjoyed the first film, but did not have a good feeling about the trailer for the sequel.

Citizen Rules

01-21-23, 04:58 PM

I kind of enjoyed Harold and Maude's outlandishness. The whole movie bases itself on the ridiculousness all being TECHNICLLY plausible, and that's what makes it wild, and that's what makes it funny.I hated Harold and Maude myself, but my reason was I took an instant and strong disliking to Harold. Now I really liked Maude, go figure!

KeyserCorleone

01-21-23, 05:11 PM

I hated Harold and Maude myself, but my reason was I took an instant and strong disliking to Harold. Now I really liked Maude, go figure!

For me, there's capturing realism, and then there's mocking it through plausibility. Both are legit art forms. Plus, Harold was a bit like Catherine from Catherine Called Birdy, one of my favorite novels.

gbgoodies

01-22-23, 12:18 AM

Gideon58

01-22-23, 12:17 PM

I loved the first one too

Gideon58

01-23-23, 12:59 PM

National Velvet
Another classic that lived up to its reputation, MGM's 1944 winner National Velvet is a handsomely mounted family drama that is best known for making a movie star out of a 12 year old actress named Elizabeth Taylor.
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The setting is rural England during the 1920's where we meet Velvet Brown, the youngest daughter of a hard-working butcher and his stern but compassionate wife. Velvet is a starry-eyed daydreamer with a passion for horses that consumes her very being. Almost simultaneously, Velvet wins a beautiful horse named Pie in a lottery and a drifter named Mi Taylor arrives at the Brown residence, led there by something his father wrote to him. It's not long before Mi is helping Velvet train Pie for the Grand Nationals and trying to find a jockey to ride the horse for her.
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Based on a novel by Enid Bagnold, the screenplay does allow the story of the Brown family to unfold just a tad too slowly, but the cast is so engaging that we almost don't notice. Though it might require a suspension of disbelief for some viewers, I loved the fact that from the moment she and Pie meet, Velvet feels the ability to communicate with him and believes Pie understands everything she says. Was also impressed that, despite the chemistry between the actors, the film did not become a love story between Velvet and Mi. The story never stopped being about the horse and everyone in this horse's orbit. I also loved that the Brown family, just like the Day family in Life with Father think the father is running the family but it's really the mother.
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Director Clarence Brown puts a great deal of sensitivity into his mounting of this simplistic story about a girl and a horse. There is no denying that a lot of what Brown accomplishes here has to do with the remarkable performance he gets from little Elizabeth Taylor in the title role. Taylor is in virtually every frame of this film and never makes the viewer regret it. It's hard to believe while watching this film that this was only Taylor's fifth film appearance. This performance by a child actress ranks right up there with Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and Hayley Mills in Pollyanna. There is real acting going on here in Taylor's performance...watch that scene where Velvet and Mi are interviewing a possible jockey for the Grand Nationals and she realizes this is not the man for the job. We see Velvet's feelings materialize on her face without her saying a word while Mi keeps talking to the jockey. It's a remarkable piece of acting and should have been a sure indicator that this little girl was going to be a superstar
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MGM put a lot of money into this film, which ended up earning five Oscar nominations, winning one for Robert Kern's film editing (even though the stunt girl riding for Elizabeth Taylor looks about eight years older than Taylor) and for Anne Revere's brilliantly understated performance as Velvet's mother. Donald Crisp, who three years earlier won an Oscar for How Green was my Valley was lovely as Velvet's dad and Angela Lansbury was fun as Velvet's boy-crazy older sister. The real surprise with this movie though was the superb performance by Mickey Rooney as Mi. Though he couldn't quite land on a proper accent, this performance was rich and layered, unlike anything I've seen Rooney do and further documented why Rooney was one of the biggest stars on the planet at the time. There's also a terrific cameo during the big race from Arthur Treacher, who 20 years later, would play the Constable in Mary Poppins. It takes a minute to get going, but once it does it delivers, especially the surprise ending I didn't see coming. A sequel was made in 1978 called International Velvet with Nanette Newman playing an adult Velvet. 4

Gideon58

01-25-23, 01:44 PM

Triangle of Sadness (2022)
A 2022 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Triangle of Sadness is an overlong, pretentious, and long-winded look at power, beauty, and wealth that failed to engage this reviewer, despite it winning a Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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The film begins strangely at some kind of audition for male models where we meet supermodel Carl, who is planning a luxury cruise with his girlfriend, fellow supermodel Yaya.
The cruise not only turns out to be a test of the couple's love, but eventually turns into a test for their survival.
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Director and screenwriter Ruben Ostlund has, for reasons this reviewer can't fathom, has been nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for this snore-inducing look at the rich and powerful that's all over the place and takes its sweet time in traveling to the various places it lands. The film begins at some sort of modeling call where we meet Carl and get to watch him being coached on how to walk. Approximately seven or eight minutes of screentime is devoted to the proper facial expression for the proper designer and how to walk shirtless.
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Just when we think we're getting some sort of cinema verite regarding the trials and tribulations of being a model, the story shifts to Carl and Yaya's relationship, which reaches crisis mode when Yaya tries to pay for dinner and her credit card is rejected. Carl wants credit for paying for dinner and Yaya wants credit for trying. Carl and Yaya are then whisked off on a luxury cruise where most of the guests get ill at the Captain's dinner and before you know it, the cruiser goes down and selected crew d guest find themselves stranded on a deserted island.
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I just don't get what Ostlund was doing here because every time the film starts to get interesting and we feel like we know what's going. it just stops and makes an abrupt detour to a new plot line. Everyone at the Captain's dinner literally starts throwing up everywhere (a scene that went on WAY too long) and why it happened is never addressed. The wait for a connection to the separate journeys this movie makes was as futile and pointless as this movie was. This movie, like last year's Drive My Car are primary arguments for the Academy going back to five nominees for Best Picture. 2

Takoma11

01-25-23, 05:49 PM

Have you seen Force Majeur or The Square? If so, wondering what you thought of them and how they compare to this one.

Gideon58

01-26-23, 09:49 PM

To Leslie
Andrea Riseborough is the executive producer and star of 2022's To Leslie, a gritty and intense family drama that has a problematic screenplay but is so well-directed and well-acted that we almost buy what is being sold here, thanks primarily to a solid performance from Riseborough that has earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
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Leslie is a hard drinking party girl and single mother who won $190,000.00 in the lottery and drank and snorted it away as quick as she won it. The movie then flashes forward six years where we find Leslie, penniless and destitute. After being rejected by her now grown son and other family, Leslie returns to her hometown and may have found some form of redemption when she gets hired as a maid at a rundown motel.
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Screenwriter Ryan Binaco does deserve credit for his creation of this central character, who is rooted in realism to the point that a lot of us know someone like Leslie. She has a myriad of problems that she is in denial about it and blames all her troubles on someone else. She is observed walking around bars throwing herself at men and standing in front of liquor stores waiting for someone to buy her a beer. And when they do buy her a beer and expect something in return, she acts shocked and disgusted.
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It's once she gets to the hotel that the story begins to lose me. She's discovered by the motel owners sleeping behind the property and their first impulse is to give her a job? Not only does she get a job, she is given a $50 advance before she even begins work. Of course, she's a terrible maid and somehow manages not only to talk hotel boss Sweeney into not firing her, but the guy actually falls in love with her. The hard to swallow plot had to be conceived by executive producer Riseborough in order to protect this interesting but pathetic character who, in reality, would have ended up in jail, in rehab, or dead.
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No matter how improbable Leslie's journey is in this movie, the viewer remains invested because of Riseborough's raw performance that reaches past the screen and slaps the viewer in the face. The early scenes with Leslie and her son are beautifully squirm-worthy, as are some later reunions with people who knew Leslie before the lottery. I understand Riseborough' nomination, though I'm not sure she deserved to be nominated over Danielle Deadwyler for Till. It's a solid performance and she gets solid support from Owen Teague as James, Marc Maron as Sweeney, Andre Royo as Royal, and Oscar winner Allison Janney as Nancy. Fans of the Charlize Theron film Monster will have a head start here. 3.5

Gideon58

01-27-23, 01:23 PM

Marked Woman
A gutsy performance by Bette Davis in the title role is the primary attraction of a 1937 noir-ish crime drama called Marked Woman worth a look.
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Davis effectively chews the scenery as Mary Dwight, a "hostess' at a fancy nightclub called Club Intimate, which has just obtained a new owner in the name of a ruthless gangster named Johnny Vanning. Vanning assigns Mary to entertain an important guest of his who turns up dead the next morning after spending the night with Mary. Then Mary's kid sister, Betty turns up, who doesn't know what Mary does for a living and it's not long before Betty finds herself in danger, thanks to Vanning as well.
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There are some slightly dated elements to the screenplay by Robert Rossen (The Hustler) and Abem Finkel (Jezebel), mostly involving legal procedures that might ignite a chuckle. There's a scene after Mary has been arrested for this guy's murder where she storms into the DA's office asking when she's going to be released. In real life, a prisoner would not be allowed to leave her cell and march into the DA's office. Also, a couple of the objections that are raised during the trial would be laughed out of a real courtroom or a contemporary movie courtroom.
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But when this movie gets stuff right, it really gets it right. We get the feeling that prostitution (of course it couldn't be referred to as such in 1937) as being trapped in a cage. Mary and her co-workers secretly want a way out, but they just can't find one. We also see this Vanning character as a pimp who considers these women his possessions who are instructed who to entertain and that the customer always gets what he wants. We see that this life has toughened Mary but her softer side comes out with the arrival of her sister. She's not only interested in preserving the way her sister idolizes but she wants to keep her out of danger as well. And what happens to Mary when she decides to testify against Vanning is not pretty.
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Lloyd Bacon's direction is taut and gets first rate performances from most of the cast. Davis is fire and ice as Mary and Humphrey Bogart is effective as the hot shot DA trying to help Mary and bring Vanning down. Eduardo Ciannelli is a little on the wooden side as Vanning though. Someone like Cagney or George Raft might have been more appropriate in the role, but the film's limited budget probably prevented an A-lister from being cast in the role. but Davis and Bogart still manage to make this a pretty smooth ride. 3.5

Gideon58

01-28-23, 08:53 PM

Causeway
2022's Causeway, is a bittersweet dual character study made watchable thanks to a pair of charismatic performances from the leads.
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Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence stars as Lyndsey, a soldier who was sent home from Afghanistan after a traumatic brain injury. She is healing nicely, but not quick enough for Lyndsey who feels lost back in her hometown and wants more than anything to return to Afghanistan. Lyndsey works hard to get a doctor to sign off on her return to the war while she begins a tentative friendship with a lonely mechanic named James who lost his leg in a car accident.
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It's hard to believe that three writers are credited with this thin screenplay that unfolds very slowly and keeps us guessing as to what this film is going to be about. At first it seems like we're looking at Lyndsey trying to adjust to being home. Then it looks like it's about her battle with this doctor to let her return to Afghanistan, but eventually the story settles on the relationship between Lyndsey and James that initially appears to be part of the film's periphery, but by the time we reach the final third of the film, the relationship is center stage,
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And that's where the main problem with this film lies. The strength and primary attraction of this film is this lovely relationship between Lyndsey and James. There is a viable chemistry between these two characters that, surprisingly, is not sexual. It's two lonely people finding and denying a friendship that they both desperately crave. It's lovely watching James walk on eggshells with Lyndsey and her being so appreciative of it though deeming it unnecessary. The slow and inviting dance that happens between these characters reminded me of the final third of Moonlight with adult Chirone and Kevin where we feel something coming and are hanging on waiting for it to happen, but instead of what happens in Moonlight, Lyndsey says the wrong thing and we're sure it's over.
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There's some risky stuff here that I liked. I liked that Lyndsey was white and James was black. I liked that James was not played by a gorgeous supermodel. I liked that everything that happened between Lyndsey and James was their doing, no interference from outside forces like family and friends. I just wish it didn't take so long into the story to come to fruition. We spend a good 15 minutes of screentime watching Lyndsey riding various busses to get home. About halfway through, we get five minutes of shots of pools that Lyndsey cleans and then we see her jump in. It was lovely photography, but the only point saw to it was to pad the running time.
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Director Lila Neugebauer could have provided a little more pace to the story but she did get terrific performances from her stars. Lawrence still knows how to command a screen with less than stellar material to work with. Bryan Tyree Henry, who was so good earlier this year in Bullet Train, is so charismatic as James that his performance has earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Also enjoyed Stephen McKinley Henderson as Lyndsey's doctor and the underrated Linda Emond as Lyndsey's mom. A great story is told here, but it doesn't begin until the final third of the film. 3.5

Gideon58

01-30-23, 12:52 PM

Panama Hattie
MGM didn't put a lot of effort into Panama Hattie, the 1942 film version of the Broadway musical that starred Ethel Merman, that, outside of a couple of terrific musical numbers, doesn't offer a lot in terms of genuine entertainment.
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Ann Southern inherits Merman's role for the film version, a nightclub singer in Central America, who is excited about the arrival of her fiancee, Dick (Dan Dailey), but finds competition for his affection in the former of a snooty admiral's daughter (Marsha Hunt) and Dick's young daughter. Three sailors (Red Skelton, Rags Ragland. Ben Blue). who are old friends with Hattie, try to help Hattie with Dick while dealing with some alleged spies. Hattie's best friend, Flo (Virginia O'Brien) is also aggressively chasing a stuffy butler (Alan Mowbray) who is taking care of Dick's daughter.
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The Broadway musical upon which this film is based opened in October of 1940 and ran for an unimpressive 501 performances, but apparently someone with some juice at MGM saw the potential for a musical giant. Unfortunately, potential from the Broadway stage doesn't guarantee success on the movie screen. A lot of the appeal with the stage musical had to come from Ethel Merman's performance in the title role, because Ann Southern's lackluster performance in the title role never really connects with the audience, The razor thin plot, which includes a really silly subplot about the three sailors chasing spies that comes out of nowhere, doesn't help either.
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The score by Cole Porter has been severely tampered with, which doesn't help matters. Songs have been inexplicably added to the score written by EY Harburg and Burton Lane , who wrote Finian's Rainbow, and Roger Edens, among others. Though guest star Lena Horne does get to shine on the Cole Porter classic "Just One of those Things." We also have The Berry Brothers, a trio of dancing brothers who never made the splash that the Nicholas Brothers made in the movies, but were just as talented and when the Berrys and Horne get together for a number called "The Sping", they give us the film's best musical number. Sour-faced Virginia O'Brien did make the most of "At the Savoy" and "Fresh as a Daisy" as well.
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Disappointed that one of Hollywood's best song and dance men, Dan Dailey, was not allowed a single musical moment in the film. And like a lot of MGM musicals, this is another film that was set in a foreign country but it was more than obvious that the filming never left an MGM soundstage. Southern works very hard in the title role, but she's no Merman and Red Skelton has rarely been this unfunny. The best thing about this musical is that it ran under ninety minutes. 2

Gideon58

02-01-23, 01:19 PM

Aftersun
Despite lovely performances from the leads, 2022's Aftersun is a confusing and slightly pretentious look at a father/daughter relationship that makes the audience work too hard at looking for something that never happens because the film seems to be too personal for the filmmaker to make a real connection with the viewer.
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This is the story of a pre-teen named Sophie who is looking back on a very special vacation that she took with her father 20 years prior to the beginning of this film, which supposedly finds Sophie reconciling the father she knew with the man he really was.
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Director and screenwriter Charlotte Wells has crafted a story that feels terribly personal, personal to the point that a cinematic wall comes up between the film and the audience. Never felt like Wells' intentions came through a lot of father/daughter bonding scenes that we keep thinking are going to build to some huge reveal about Sophie and her father that never happens. Initially, I theorized that this was about Sophie's unhappiness about her parents not being together anymore, but then we get a scene where Sophie asks her dad, Calum, why does he say he loves Sophie's mother if they're not together anymore.
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My next theory was that Calum, was dying or had recently died and this is what triggered Sophie's look back at this vacation because Calum works very hard throughout the film giviing Sophie his full attention and doing whatever she wanted. Calum's complete attention to Sophie almost has an incestuous quality to it, due to Calum's complete lack of socialization with adults. Calum is a young and very attractive man who should have been swimming in female attention but Sophie seems to be the only person in his life who matters. Then, for some reason at the beginning of the third act, he refuses to do a karaoke duet with her that separates the two for the first time in the movie. We also get shots of him running alone on the beach at night as well as a scene of him weeping uncontrollably which goes by with no explanation. I also found the hand-held camera, giving us the home movie effect, very annoying.
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The opening credits imply that this film is British, but the actors sound Australian and the movie was filmed in Turkey. Frankie Corio is adorable as Sophie and Paul Mescal, whose eyes one can get lost in, is so charismatic as Sophie's father that his performance has earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. As good as Mescal and Corio are, I just couldn't figure out what this movie was about. 3

Sedai

02-02-23, 11:07 AM

Gideon58

Here is how I interpreted the film:

Calum is a manic depressive and also suicidal - he didn't go running on the beach, he walked into the sea, which is why Sophie finds him passed out nude on the bed in the morning, as he must have managed to pull himself out before totally letting himself drown. I think this, and the lost in the dark room with the flashing lights scenes are allegory for Calum being lost in darkness with only his relationship with Sophie as a tether keeping him holding on to life.

Sophie's monologue about her feeling down, and her bones not working etc., along with the flashes of her in the dark room, led me to believe she does and will suffer from the same bouts of depression, and the father then realizes this, which leads to his breakdown in the hotel room. I think the final scene at the end, after Sophie boards the plane, and the father walks through the doors into the dark room, signifies him finally succumbing to his depression.

The adjoining sequence with the flowing pan around the room is Sophie finishing up watching all the video footage of their vacation together, most likely on her birthday, with her still trying to reconcile his death.
Sad stuff, and in my opinion, brilliantly done.

4_5

Gideon58

02-03-23, 04:39 PM

Avatar
With Avatar: The Way of Water being a Best Picture nominee this year, I figured there was no point in watching that until I watched the first film. A 2009 Best Picture nominee, Avatar is a groundbreaking, intoxicating, breathtaking action fantasy that, for this reviewer, redefines the science fiction genre, rich with cinematic pyrotechnics unlike anything I have ever seen, utilized to tell a story which initially seems to present one underlying theme, but a different one quietly bubbles to the surface when we're not looking.
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After his brother is killed, a paraplegic marine named Jake Sully volunteers to take his place in a mission on a moon called Pandora. Jake's mission is to gather information for a corporate organization who, in exchange for his help, have offered to restore the use of his legs. With virtually no training, Jake is placed in a pod, which transports him to the alternate universe of Pandora where the humans, known as Avatars, have blue faces, yellow eyes, Spock ears, and tails. With the help of a bad ass female Avatar named Neytiri, Jake finds himself in the middle of what appears to be some kind of civil war on Pandora, but when he finds out what's really going on, realizes he can't complete his mission because he may have found a new life and home on Pandora.
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With films like The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and Titanic under his belt, I didn't think there were any more cinematic mountains that mad genius and "king of the world" James Cameron could climb but he proved me wrong. They say the secret of making a great movie all starts with a great story and Cameron has crafted a story that starts so quietly centering on a tragic but likable hero drawn into something that not only grows to gargantuan proportions, but surrounds our hero with several black hats and white hats that are initially hard to discern from each other, but once he does, he does what he has to do with unabashed enthusiasm, courage, and a deadly sense of humor...he reminded me of an intergalactic John McLane.
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Loved the way Jake's transition into an Avatar smoothly brings him into the Avatar world and just when he's in the thick of things, we are taken right back to the pod where he is pulled out and given instructions about what he did wrong while back in Avatar world, he is being taught their language and about the battle they are fighting. It's initially maddening for Jake and the viewer because he never gets straight answers from anyone on either side of the mission about what he's doing. Did love when he first morphs into an Avatar, his joy at having the use of his legs again and starts running and keeps running until he has to pulled back to the pod and we're again reminded that Jake can't walk. Loved Jake and Neytiri's first kiss too.
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Cameron's meticulous craftsmanship in mounting the Pandora canvas, is a seamless blend of CGI effects and logic defying production design. The film is rich with incredible set pieces, a lot of which seemed to be inspired by set pieces from previous Cameron films. The forests of Pandora have a haunting quality that makes them seem to come alive and be part of the story. The non-human creatures of Pandora are an uncanny mix of real animals whose appearance seems to be altered versions of real animals and creatures specific to the Avatars that defy description. Love at one point when Neytiri tells Jake he must get control of a particular creature and Neytiri says he'll know the time is right when the creature tries to kill him. Also loved the floating mountains of Pandora...only James Cameron would find a way to make mountains float in mid air.
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This film was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, and won well-deserved statues for cinematography, art direction, and visual effects. Cameron's cast serves his story, anchored by Sam Worthington's exuberant and sincere Jake Sully. There is also standout work from Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, Giovanni Ribisi as Selfridge, Sigourney Weaver as Grace, Michelle Rodrigues as Trudy, and especially Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch. A spellbinding cinematic experience. Can't wait to watch the sequel and am SO glad I watched this first. Fastest three hours of my life. 4.5

Gideon58

02-06-23, 01:41 PM

Babylon (2022)
Hollywood wunderkind Damien Chazelle (Whiplash; La La Land) seems to be a stranger in a strange land with Babylon, an overblown and uncompromising look at Hollywood in the 1920's that finds Chazelle a little more invested in shocking, repelling, and confusing his audiences than entertaining them, providing about two thirds of a really incredible film experience.
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Hollywood's transition to talkies is the canvas upon which this tale regarding the roles of sexual debauchery and studio head machinations that controlled Hollywood during a time of shaky transition in Hollywood is mounted. The story is told essentially through the eyes of four characters: Jack Conrad is a hard-drinking, womanizing silent matinee idol who is unable to make the transition from silent to talk; Manny Torres is a young Latino hustler who wants to be in the movie business, not really caring what facet of the business it is; Nellie LeRoy is a sexual wildcat who wants to be a movie star more than anything who achieves the fame she desires, but throws it away just as quickly, with a strong assist from cocaine addiction; Harry Palmer is a black trumpet player who goes from studio musician to a musical star in his own right but is thrown by the way people of color are treated in Hollywood.
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Chazelle is definitely out of his comfort zone here, trying to present a thorough overlay of Hollywood from several angles, but his screenplay tries to cover a little too much territory, territory that I'm not sure Chazelle is really familiar with. The opening scenes of Torres and other characters being drowned in elephant feces, followed by the elephant making an unbilled appearance at a wild Hollywood party/orgy where we meet the other three central characters. This party scene ended up being the primary marketing tool for this movie, but this twenty-minute scene segues into a more straight-faced and melodramatic look at the effect that a changing Hollywood has on these four main characters.
and equally
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This unknown Latino becoming a major studio executive before the halfway point in the movie never rings true, nor does Nellie LeRoy's meteoric rise to success and equally meteoric fall. Didn't really buy the underdeveloped story of Harry Palmer's disdain about being asked to wear blackface because most black actors at this time were playing maids and limo drivers and would have killed for the career that Harry Palmer had. Manny's infatuation with the self-centered Nellie didn't really make sense nor did his obsession with helping and protecting her. The only completely satisfying story was Jack Conrad's...a sad and more serious turn on Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood that provided the film's most endearing story. Research revealed that the Jack Conrad character was loosely based on 30's matinee idol John Gilbert, best known for the films he made with Greta Garbo.
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Chazelle also seems a little obsessed with shocking his audiences with several moments that seemed to have been inserted purely for the purpose of shock values and adding to the film's severe overlength: In addition to the elephant feces, we get Nellie battling a rattle snake on the beach and Nellie's constant retakes of a scene leading to a genuine tragedy or her vomiting in the face of a party's host? Nellie's sad descent back to the bottom leads the audience down a predictable path and putting Manny in danger he didn't deserve. And Chazelle's pretentious finale, attempting to connect the events in this film to present day pop culture made for an unnecessarily long conclusion to a very long movie.
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Chazelle's hand-picked cast was a big asset though. Margot Robbie really sinks her teeth into the part of Nellie LeRoy, delivering a slightly over the top but explosive performance that commands the screen, Newcomer Diego Calva, who reminded me of a young Antonio Banderas, displayed real promise as Manny. Also loved Jean Smart as a snooty gossip columnist, Lukas Haas as a romance-challenged producer, Flea as a manipulative studio exec, Eric Roberts as Nellie's father, a character that actually reminded me of Roberts' most famous character, Paul Snider in Star 80, PJ Byrne as a high strung assistant director and an actress I've never heard of named Olivia Hamilton was hysterical as a bitchy female movie director. Towering above all of them though was Oscar winner Brad Pitt, who is dazzling yet understated as Jack Conrad, a performance that had me falling out of my chair with laughter one minute and fighting tears the next. Pitt offers one of his top five performances here...watch him in that scene where he's watching the rushes of his first talkie or when he's trying to explain Hollywood to Manny. Pitt's performance alone makes this movie worth watching, but as a complete film experience, Chazelle doesn't top his work in La La Land or even First Man. The film has been nominated for three Oscars for Production Design, Original Score, and costumes, though I have to question if a lot of the wardrobe choices for Margot Robbie were authentically 1920's. I think Tom Ross' editing was worthy of a nomination. Chazelle definitely deserves an "A" for intentions. 3.5

Gideon58

02-08-23, 10:56 AM

Robin Hood (1973)
The story first hit the big screen way back in 1938 and made an official movie star out of an actor named Errol Flynn. Disney Studios scored with their 1973 animated version of Robin Hood.
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Of course since it's Disney, all of these well known characters are now animals. The title character is a slick and charming fox (voiced by Brian Bedford) who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, with the aid of his pal, a bear named Little John (voiced by Phil Harris), who bears more than a passing resemblance to Baloo in Jungle Book. Robin makes the mistake of stealing from the kingdom's leader, an evil and miserly lion named Prince John (brilliantly voiced by Peter Ustinov) who, when things aren't going his way, sucks his thumb. Of course, the war between Robin and John interferes with his romance with his childhood sweetheart, a pretty young fox named Maid Marian.
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This reviewer hasn't had much exposure to this story. Haven't seen the Errol Flynn classic, hell, I haven't even see Robin Hood Men in Tights. I have seen the Rat Pack's 1964 take on the story called Robin and the Seven Hoods. I did find this take on the story a lot of fun. This Robin is a total charmer who is brave, skilled, and best of all, humble. For some reason, I expected this character to be arrogant, but he wasn't. I also loved that he spent a lot of the screen time in various disguises. Love when he gets busted at the archery tournament. Also loved the outright brass of just plucking Baloo from Jungle Book and making him Little John.
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Country singer Roger Miller contributes to the pleasant musical score and also provides the voice for the narrator, a guitar playing rooster named Allen-A-Dale. The musical highlights include :"The Phony King of England", "Fight On", "Ooh-de-Lally", and "Not in Nottingham/"
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There is other strong voice work by Terry-Thomas as John's snake assistant, Sir Hiss, Andy Devine as Friar Tuck (who actually looks like Devine), and Monica Evans and Carole Shelley as Maid Marian and her lady in waiting, a chicken named Lady Kluck. Evans and Shelley also voiced a pair of geese in The Aristocats, but are best known for -playing the Pidgeon Sisters in The Odd Couple, but Ustinov effortlessly steals the show as the whiny Prince John. This movie was all kinds of fun. 4

Gideon58

02-08-23, 05:30 PM

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Despite elegant visual and musical trappings, earnest direction, and some strong performances, the 2022 musical biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody suffers from the same problem that the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect suffered from: when it comes down to it, it's just another biopic and, frankly, the subject deserves better. And of course, it goes on forever.
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The film follows the typical biographical route, starting with Whitney's humble beginnings as a church soloist being bullied by her mother, Cissy Houston, to her signing with Arista records, where she met her mentor, Clive Davis and her stormy relationships with Robyn Crawford and Bobby Brown.
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Screenwriter Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody) impresses by placing a couple of things in Whitney's life directly in the spotlight, one of which was definitely news to me. I liked that Robyn Crawford was introduced as the first real love of Whitney's life, long before Bobby Brown and the tension between the two of them, battling to be #1 in Whitney's life, was palpable...so was Whitney's refusal to take sides in the battle. The screenplay also doesn't shy away from the theory that Whitney and her music weren't "black" enough. The film even lets us know that a lot of Whitney's career was controlled by her father, who was also robbing her blind.
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Director Kasi Lemons (Harriet) shows a lot of love for the subject, though she might be a little overprotective of her. The opening scenes of her signing with Arista Records portray Whitney as being a little too trusting of people than Whitney probably was. Her quizzing Clive Davis about what it was like to go to Harvard just didn't ring true. Neither did her declaration that she liked all kinds of music. The scenes of Clive and Whitney testing songs were kind of silly. On the other hand, any scene revolving around the turbulent marriage of Bobby and Whitney crackled with tension.
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Lemons has mounted Whitney's story on an inviting canvas and makes some interesting casting choices. Naomi Ackie works very hard at bringing Whitney to life and really seems to understand her. I was anxious to see what they were going to do regarding Whitney's voice. Like Judy and Barbra, Whitney's instrument was one of a kind and impossible to duplicate, so I will just say that Whitney's voice is used on some of the musical segments and Ackie sings on others,. I'll let you figure out which voice is in what scene. This becomes pretty simple though because Ackie's lip-synching isn't very good.
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Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) was absolutely superb as Bobby Brown, as were Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis, and Tamara Tunie as Cissy Houston. The film seems to be a pretty accurate overlay of Houston's life, but in terms of entertainment value, nothing special. 3.5

Takoma11

02-08-23, 06:36 PM

I loved the animated Robin Hood as a kid and watched it all the time. Great music. I learned to play most of the songs on the guitar from a Disney songbook, LOL.

Gideon58

02-13-23, 01:49 PM

Bedknobs and Broomsticks
After the unprecedented success of the 1964 Best Picture nominee Mary Poppins. Walt Disney Studios made several attempts to duplicate the success of the instant classic. They came pretty damn close with 1971's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, another exquisitely mounted combination of live action, animation, and music that provides the same kind of enchanting entertainment that Mary Poppins did.
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The setting is England just before the outbreak of WWII where we meet Miss Price (Angela Lansbury), an apprentice witch who has been assigned temporary custody of three young children while learning that the final lesson of her witch training is not coming, which contains a particular spell which she has been waiting to learn. With the help of the children, Miss Price learns that her witchcraft course was being offered by a phony street entertainer named Emilius Brown (David Tomlinson). Miss Price, Mr. Brown. and the three children travel on a magical bed to search for the second half of the spell that Miss Price took the witchcraft course for in the first place.
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The screenplay is a little more complex than need be, but it does provide the same kind of magical and often logic defying story that Mary Poppins did. This is of no surprise since Bill Walsh, screenwriter for Mary Poppins also provided the screenplay for this story. I was surprised that Miss Price was taking a course to becoming a witch because I always assumed a person was either born a witch or wasn't. The idea that one could be taught to be a witch was a surprise but this becomes irrelevant pretty quickly. It was amusing that by the time Miss Price got to her last missing lesson, the only power she had obtained until then was the ability to turn human beings into rabbits.
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The viewer is simultaneously confused and intrigued when the first leg of Miss Price's journey leads her to a book where the final page with the spell has been torn out. This leads Miss Price, Mr. Brown, and the children on a journey that leads to an animated underwater adventure with singing codfish and an above ground animated soccer game led by a an eccentric lion king, which found Mr. Brown serving as referee. The entire soccer game sequence had this reviewer on the floor with laughter. I also loved the tentative relationship that blooms between Miss Price and Mr. Brown, which never becomes full blown romance but makes a believable transition as the story progressed. Also loved the reveal, which we are forced to wait for, as to why Miss Price wants to be a witch.
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The film features another terrific song score from Richard M and Robert B Sherman, who did the score for Mary Poppins. Highlights included "The Age of Not Believing" (which received a Best Original Song Oscar nomination), "Eglantine, Don't Let Me Down", "A Step in the Right Direction" and especially "The Beautiful Briny", which effectively combines elements of songs from Mary Poppins.
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Robert Stevenson, who was nominated for an Oscar for directing Mary Poppins, was also in the director's chair here and Cotton Warburton, who won an Oscar for editing Mary Poppins, was also the film editor for this movie. The film was nominated for four Oscars and won the Oscar for its terrific visual effects. Lansbury is absolutely enchanting, as always, and David Tomlinson shines in a role more flawed than his George Banks, but way more heart than his villain Thorndyke in The Love Bug. It's no Mary Poppins, but if you loved that film, you'll love this one too. 4

Gideon58

02-16-23, 01:31 PM

Empire of Light
Despite a spotty screenplay and slightly sluggish direction, a bittersweet romantic drama and character study called Empire of Light remains watchable thanks to its unique canvas and some powerhouse performances from the leads.
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The setting for this 2022 film is a British seaside community circa 1980. Oscar winner Olivia Colman plays Hillary, a lonely woman on the cusp of spinsterhood, who works at a movie theater and takes ballroom dancing lessons. Hillary is also being used sexually by her married boss (Oscar winner Colin Firth). She is also the only employee at the movie theater who never sneaks into the theater to watch some of the movies. It slowly comes to light that there are some medical and emotional issues in Hillary's past that have had a severe effect on her present. Things begin to look up for Hillary when she finds herself drawn to a new employee, a sensitive young black man named Stephen.
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Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing 1999's Oscar winner for Best Picture, American Beauty, wrote and directed this film that scores immediate points for the unique canvas upon which this story unfolds. This is the first film this reviewer has seen where the primary setting is a movie theater and most of the characters are employees of the theater. The last time I saw a movie character working as a projectionist was Tyler Durden in Fight Club, though if the truth be told, the film that this most reminded me of is The Way We Were, where we are brought a romance that probably would only happen in a movie, but we are firmly behind it, even though we can see that the relationship is probably doomed.
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Mendes allows this movie to move at a snail's pace, allowing scenes to play out much longer than they should and some scenes just get in the way of this potentially compelling romance. There's a scene with Stephen and the theater's projectionist (beautifully played by Toby Jones) that definitely slows the film down as do several private moments with Hillary that seem to be leading somewhere but don't. The potential romance also gets muddied by a racist subplot that results in a shockingly violent incident during the final act that seems to come out of nowhere. It's equally disturbing when Hillary's backstory simmers to the surface offering some bizarre behavior from the character, especially the sudden change in a scene where Hillary and Stephen are at the beach building a sand castle. The scene that Hillary makes at the theater's premiere of Chariot of Fire also redefines squirm worthy.
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However, when this film concentrates on the totally unexpected relationship between Hillary and Stephen, it is totally watchable. Love the first time they make love (beautifully filmed in silhouette) or watching the fireworks from the roof of the movie theater. These scenes completely lure the viewer into considering the possibility of true happiness between these two people. I did love the finale where Hillary asks the projectionist to show her a movie, any movie, and LOVED the movie he chose to show Hillary.
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The movie is beautifully photographed, earning veteran Roger Deakins the film's only Oscar nomination for cinematography. Despite the somewhat aggravating story, we remain invested in the proceedings because of the performances of the stars. Olivia Colman is explosive, unpredictable, and often heartbreaking as the severely broken Hillary...watch her in that scene where the police break into her apartment to return her to the hospital. A young actor named Michael Ward lights up the screen as Stephen, a performance that reminded me of a young Sidney Poitier and had been gaining him some serious Oscar buzz for Best Supporting Actor and I could have definitely seen him being nominated instead of Judd Hirsch's sentimental nomination. The road these principal characters travel in this film is troublesome, but Colman and Ward make the viewer care. 3.5

Gideon58

02-16-23, 07:11 PM

Phone Booth
It doesn't quite measure up to his masterpiece Falling Down, but the late Joel Schumacher has crafted an improbable and claustrophobic little nail-biter called Phone Booth that manages to rivet the viewer to the screen as long as they don't think about it too much.
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The 2002 film stars Colin Farrell as Stu Shepherd, a slick-talking, smart-ass show business publicist who has several irons in the fire, but takes the time to get off his cell phone so that he can enter a phone booth, take off his wedding ring, so that he can call his new girlfriend, presumably so his wife doesn't discover the call on his cell. After completing the call, Stu starts to leave the booth and it immediately starts ringing. For some reason, he decide to answer it and finds himself talking to someone who seems to know everything about his life and for some reason, wants Stu to confess to his wife that he is cheating on her. In order to make sure Stu takes him seriously, the caller actually murders someone and makes sure the police and everyone else thinks he did it.
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Screenwriter Larry Cohen is to be credited for setting the story in a time when the entire communications industry was in a serious state of flux. In 2002, cellular phones were still kind of a novelty, something reserved for the rich, powerful, and most importantly, self-absorbed. Land lines and phone booths were still around but they were beginning to disappear, but as we learn at the beginning of this film, this phone booth located at the corner of 53rd and 8th in Manhattan, is one of the few for miles around, supposedly legitimizing the presence of a pimp and his girls using the phone to run their business, which initially comes off as stupid, but gets serious pretty quickly. The screenplay leaves a lot of unanswered questions and I think this is because a lot of them don't have answers. We never learn exactly who this caller is or how or why he does this, but from what he asks of Stu, it's likely that he's not a stranger, but we're never told for sure.
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Where the film really scores is in the often inventive and overheated direction by Schumacher that gives the film an importance that it might not really deserve. Schumacher's variation on the split screen film technique is, at times, distracting, but it forces complete viewer attention because we just don't see a simple phone call bringing police and SWAT, but effortlessly keeping them perplexed and at a safe distance. The over the phone cat and mouse eventually reaches a fever pitch; however, the ending left a bad taste in the mouth.
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Colin Ferrell's overheated performance perfectly fits the story and he is matched perfectly by Keifer Sutherland, who is nothing short of superb as the menacing and dangerous caller. Forest Whitaker scores as the perplexed police office trying to figure out what's going on, as well as Richard T. Jones as a cop and Rahda Mitchell as Stu's wife. There's fun to be had here as long as you don't take it too seriously. 3.5

Samson_stages

02-20-23, 04:42 AM

Lovely! Some of my all-time favorites are here. So glad to see the reviews!

Gideon58

02-20-23, 01:37 PM

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
A 2023 Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best International Film, 2022's All Quiet on the Western Front is the fourth screen adaptation of the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque that documents the ugliness of World War I through an emotionally charged motion picture experience when it stays on the battlefield.
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The story opens with a wide-eyed German teenager named Paul who enlists in the German army with his best friends Albert and Muller, pumped to serve their country in World War I, but as the story progresses, it whittles down to a look at the war through Paul's eyes.
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Initial reticence occurred for this reviewer when it's revealed that the Oscar-nominated adapted screenplay is in German without subtitles, but a lot of my discomfort with this vanquished as I found the exquisite attention director Edward Berger put into the visuals provided here as well as the emotion of what these soldiers experience made it pretty easy to understand exactly what was going on when the story was on the actual battlefields. It was when the story moved from the battlefield to the strategizing of the military leaders where the film seems to shut out the viewer who doesn't comprehend German. The one exception to this was the scene where Germany and France sign the armistice, where what was going on was crystal clear.
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Loved the opening scene where the young would e soldiers are being instructed by a leader and the camera pans across the anxious young faces who are thrilled to be going into this very ugly and dangerous war. The way they listened to the opening speech and the way they responded with thunderous cheers was a little squirm-worthy, making it obvious that these kids didn't have a clue what they were getting into. Yes, I used the word kids because I've noticed in the last couple of war films that I've seen that most of the soldiers are in their teens.
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The scenes on the battlefield provide the carnage that one would expect, but the most effective scenes of battle were the one on one encounters between two soldiers that take the movie out of those underground bunkers, often producing an actual movie within the movie. Especially moving was an encounter that Paul has with an enemy soldier where he stabs him several times but he refuses to die. He then finds pictures of the soldier's family on him and it's almost implied that he might have even known this guy before the war.
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Berger's attention to the look of this film is spectacular. The settings for this story are all bathed in serious gray and mud tones. And just as Sam Mendes did in 1917, there is extraordinary use of the tracking shot as the soldiers are followed through the underground bunkers that initially appear to be sanctuary for the soldiers, but as the film progresses, e learn there is no such thing as sanctuary in war. The film also reminds us how precious normal human functions like eating and sleeping get short shrift when you're a soldier. There are scenes of soldiers drinking muddy water like it's champagne.
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In addition to the Best Picture, International Film, and adapted screenplay nominations. the film has earned six other Oscar nominations, including production design, visual effects, sound, and the wonderful musical score that doesn't frame every second of the movie, but served it in unique fashion. Didn't understand a single word said onscreen in this film, but was still riveted to the screen. 4

Gideon58

02-21-23, 06:38 PM

Phffft
My theory that the iconic Judy Holliday never made a bad movie is once again confirmed with a 1954 romantic comedy called Phfft!, a sparkling, if predictable romantic comedy that reunites Holliday with her It Should Happen to You co-star, Jack Lemmon, providing plenty of laughs and grins along the way.
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Holliday and Lemmon play Nina and Bob Tracey who have been married for eight years, but something is missing in the marriage and they impulsively decide to divorce. They both attempt to move on, Bob getting assistance from his womanizing BFF Charlie and Nina getting assistance from her mother. We realize it immediately, but it takes Bob and Nina a lot longer to realize they're still in love with each other.
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Judy Holliday blindsided Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson by winning the 1950 Oscar for Best Actress for playing the quintessential dumb blonde Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, but Holliday was anything but. She was very careful making sure her choices of film roles were not just rehashes of Billie Dawn and this film is no exception. The predictability of the story is tolerable thanks to an intelligent and adult screenplay by George Axelrod (Breakfast at Tiffany's) that does have a slightly sexist leaning to it...several times in the film it is implied that Nina believes her life is worthless without a man in it, despite a very successful career at NBC as a soap opera writer. Even though we're halfway through the final act before Nina actually admits her feeling about Bob, we don't really mind the wait because Nina is so smart and funny and we know she's smart enough to figure out what we figured out about fifteen minutes into the movie.
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There is one funny scene after another here. Loved Nina's date with the slimy soap opera star whose agenda we don't see coming at all. We see them both take dance lessons and Bob grow a mustache. Bob's blind date with the ditzy Janis (Kim Novak) provides big laughs as well as Bob and Nina's dance floor duel in a fancy nightclub where both Holliday and Lemmon prove to be very light on their feet. Also loved the brief flashback to Bob and Nina's first meeting where she looks at him like a steak smothered in onions.
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Director Mark Robson (Peyton Place) brings a perfect lightness to the proceedings that never gets in the way of this terrific cast, especially Holliday, who, as always, completely loses herself in a role where we are never in doubt of what the character is thinking even if she isn't. Lemmon's energetic Bob is a lot of fun, reminding me a lot of a future Lemmon character, Felix Unger in The Odd Couple. Jack Carson brings just the right smarm to Charlie and even though Charlie is smarmy, it's OK because Charlie realizes it. Kim Novak is bubbly effervescence as Janis, a role that felt like it was written for Marilyn Monroe but Novak makes it work. Further testament as to the gift movie fans lost in 1960 when we lost Judy Holliday. 4

gbgoodies

02-21-23, 11:15 PM

I love Judy Holliday. It's a shame that she died so young. I'm sure that she would have had a great career, and made some more wonderful movies, if she had lived longer.

Gideon58

02-22-23, 02:26 PM

Even though she only made 16 movies, she did have a great career. Of the ones I've seen, not a dud in the bunch. It would have been nice to see what else she would have done if she had lived longer, maybe even won a second Oscar, she was that good.

Gideon58

02-22-23, 03:12 PM

Avatar: The Way of Water
It took him thirteen years, but Oscar winning director James Cameron has managed to come up with a viable sequel to his 2009 smash called Avatar: The Way of Water, a thunderous and technically breathtaking sequel that offers a similar ecological message as the first film, but also provides a surprisingly humanized look at family dynamics that makes this story a little more accessible than the first one.
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As this film opens, Jake Scully (voiced by Sam Worthington) and his wife, Neytiri (voiced by Zoe Saldana) have settled comfortably into their lives on Pandora where they now have four children, two of whom are adopted and one who is human. Colonel Quartrich (voiced by Stephen Lang) has not given up on his vendetta against Jake and has assumed Avatar form to get him back, a vendetta that forces Jake and his family to leave their current home and reside on a neighboring moon with a similar tribe, who initially welcome them and try to introduce them to a new life, but Quartrich's determination and some surprising familial connections come to surface making a new life for Jake and his family virtually impossible.
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As expected, Cameron has provided us with a feast for the eyes ad ears courtesy of unparalleled film technique, but he has layered the cinematic razzle dazzle with multiple stories centered around family dynamics that make this film as much of a family drama as it does a science fiction adventure. We witness Scully's adopted son, Spider, being separated by his family but never wavering in his love for him, as well as a younger brother trying to step out of his older brother's shadow, and a teenage daughter struggling to find her place in the family. The aforementioned ecological message comes through as Jake's family learns that life on the new moon involves learning to live underwater. The family's initial plunge into the water where they seem to develop the ability to breathe underwater and the younger brother's relationship with a gargantuan sea monster are a joy to behold. The emotions that the characters express are much richer in this film as is the demented determination of Quartrich, which reminded me of T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
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Cameron's attention to minor details is on the money here. My eye was immediately struck by the sight of the new tribe and the similarities and differences between them and Jake's family. The new tribe have bigger and thicker tails and all of their hair is different. Jake's family all have the same braids. Also loved the detail put into the sound whenever a character would hold their breath before plunging underwater. Was also impressed when Jake's younger son gets into a fight with teens from the other tribe and during the next scene, one of the participants has a huge bruise on his face. More importantly, like he did in The Abyss, Cameron shows the power of water and how it can destroy as quickly as it can protect.
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The film has received four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Production Design, Visual Effects, and Sound, the award it should definitely win. If you enjoyed the first film, you will enjoy this one too, but if you've never seen the 2009 film, you should watch it first like I did. It's a little longer than it needed to be, but riveting enough I was able to forgive. 4

Gideon58

02-23-23, 01:54 PM

The Whale (2022)
In the most spectacular comeback to films since Mickey Roarke in The Wrestler, Brendon Fraser will win his first Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor for The Whale, a claustrophobic, unforgiving, frightening and terribly sad look at a man who has given up on most of his life, coincidentally, guided by the same director who directed The Wrestler.
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Fraser plays Charlie, a gay college professor who teaches English online because he is so morbidly obese he is unable to leave the house. When he lectures his students, he keeps his screen off so that his students don't know what he looks like. Being barely ambulatory, the people in Charlie's orbit are very limited: there is Liz, his caregiver who knows he belongs in the hospital but is enabling his inevitable premature death; a young religious zealot who feels he can help Charlie; his angry ex-wife who has never gotten over the fact that Charlie left her to be with a man, and most importantly, the only thing in Charlie's life he hasn't given up on, his teenage daughter, Ellie, who appears to hate Charlie with a white hot passion.
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A lot has been written about this film over the past year but very little about the near brilliant screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, based on a play, in its unapologetic crafting of this central character. We are initially extremely sympathetic for this character who has to put a lot of work into getting out of his chair and has to put money for the pizza delivery guy in the mailbox so that he can leave the pizza at the door. We don't see the layers that are added to this character as the film progresses that make the character not as sympathetic as he initially appears to be. It becomes clear that all the wrong he has done was in the name of his daughter, whose approval is so important to him he has offered her all of his money to reconnect with her rather than to help himself. His daughter's nasty manipulation of her father's guilt makes it difficult to sympathize with her either. Even the young religious zealot turns out to have a backstory and agenda that are disturbing and unnecessary complications to Charlie's life.
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Darren Aronofsky, who not only directed The Wrestler, but Requiem for a Dream, is no stranger to mounting stories about severely broken people and manages to mount this story from as many angles as possible. Love the first scene of Charlie teaching with his screen dark while the camera pans over the screens of his students who are all reacting to Charlie in individual ways as well as their reactions near the end when Charlie reveals himself to them. Aronofsky is also not shy about showing us the pain and inconvenience of Charlie's condition...the difficulty of simple things we take for granted like removing a T-shirt or picking something up off the floor are not easy to watch, not to mention the scene where Charlie almost chokes on a submarine sandwich...the terrified look on his face as he realizes what is happening is heartbreaking.
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Brendon Fraser's personal life and career have been a private hell for several years now and watching him able to work past his personal demons through this damaged character was a joy to witness. He may no longer be the hunky sex symbol who spent George of the Jungle clad only in a loin cloth, but he completely invests in this pathetic and complex character in a performance that displays the talent that Fraser hinted at in Gods and Monsters. There is no doubt that this performance will win Fraser his first Oscar.
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Hong Chau has also earned a supporting actress nomination for her explosive performance as Charlie's caregiver, Liz. Sadie Sink, who impressed earlier this year in Dear Zoe, is uncomfortably caustic as Charlie's angry daughter and Samantha Morton does imbue some sympathy as Charlie's ex...the moment where she asks to listen to Charlie's heart is lovely, but with a solid assist from Darren Aronofsky, this film is a triumph for Brendon Fraser who proves to be an actor of depth and sensitivity. 4.5

Gideon58

02-24-23, 06:34 PM

The Asphalt Jungle
Fans of the Stanley Kubrick classic The Killing will have a head start with 1950's The Asphalt Jungle, another noir-ish crime drama like Kubrick's film, except in this story, things start falling apart after the crime is committed.
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A career criminal named Doc who has just been released from prison already has a plan for a jewel heist worth about half a million dollars. A bookie friend of his leads him to a lawyer of questionable ethics named Alonzo Emmerich for $50,000.00 to front the operation, who also offers to buy the diamonds after the heist. Doc's crew includes a gunman named Dix Handley who plans to return to the farm where he grew up with his share, Gus as the driver, and Louis as the safecracker. The heist goes off without a hitch, but our pertinent players begin to start double crossing each other and going into self preservation, resulting in most of the pertinent players ending up in jail or dead.
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Two time Oscar winner John Huston provides meticulous artistry as the director and co-screenwriter of this slick crime thriller, based on a novel by WR Burnett that doesn't waste any time with exposition or backstory, getting to the story at hand immediately and quickly introducing the primary players with precious little background. What the screenplay does do effectively is, despite the fact that most of the characters are criminals, quickly establishes who the good guys and the bad guys are. I was impressed that the Emmerich character was in bed with a dirty cop, which I didn't see coming at all.
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Eventually, two characters come into focus as the most compelling elements of the story. We connect immediately with Doc because he is older, experienced, and easily the smartest character in the movie. His ability to gauge who he can trust and who he can't is a joy to behold. I also found the Emmerich character equally as fascinating, whose smarm factor bubbles quietly to the surface, but is not as smart as he thinks he is. His treatment of his invalid wife and his sexy young mistress doesn't endear him to the viewer either, but definitely makes us want to see this guy get what's coming to him.
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Houston received two Oscar nominations for his taut direction and for his contribution to the screenplay. Hollywood veteran Sam Jaffe also received a supporting actor nomination for his crisp performance as Doc. Sterling Hayden commands the screen as Dix the same way he did in The Killing and Jean Hagen, who a couple of years later would almost steal Singin in the Rain as Lina Lamont, is terrific as Dix's ex who re-enters his life and is oblivious to the danger Dix might have put her in. The character reminds me of Lucille Ball's character in The Dark Corner. A young Marilyn Monroe also impresses in her sixth feature film role as Emmerich's young mistress, Angela. Some of the posters for this movie have Marilyn plastered all over them like she's the star of the movie, but she has less than 10 minutes of screen time. The real scene stealer here was Louis Calhern in the complex role of Emmerich. I've seen a pretty good chunk of Calhern's work over the years but this is the first time I've seen him in a straight dramatic role and he nails it. Another classic that lived up to its reputation. 4

Citizen Rules

02-24-23, 06:39 PM

The Asphalt Jungle
Fans of the Stanley Kubrick classic The Killing will have a head start with 1950's The Asphalt Jungle, another noir-ish crime drama like Kubrick's film, except in this story, things start falling apart after the crime is committed. rating_4I love The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing is good too but I'll take John Huston's rich character pathos over Kubrick's more analytically detailed film. My favorite movie quote of all time is from this movie, any guesses?

Gideon58

02-24-23, 06:48 PM

I do remember one line that made me laugh out loud, but I'm drawing a blank now.

Citizen Rules

02-24-23, 06:55 PM

I do remember one line that made me laugh out loud, but I'm drawing a blank now.Was it Marilyn's line to Louis Calhern when she says, "you big banana head"...that's my favorite, cracks me up.

Gideon58

02-24-23, 06:57 PM

That wasn't the one i was thinking of but that was pretty funny. Marilyn was adorable in this movie.

Citizen Rules

02-24-23, 07:02 PM

That wasn't the one i was thinking of but that was pretty funny. Marilyn was adorable in this movie.She was and like you said in your review Calhoun and Hagen would really strong too, so was Jaffe and Sterling Hayden. Did you watch that as part of a movie watching theme?

Gideon58

02-24-23, 07:06 PM

Nope, just been meaning to watch it for awhile and finally got around to it. Also I thought it might spark a conversation with you because I know what a big Sterling Hayden fan you are.

Citizen Rules

02-24-23, 07:08 PM

Nope, just been meaning to watch it for awhile and finally got around to it. Also I thought it might spark a conversation with you because I know what a big Sterling Hayden fan you are.Yup I'm a big fan of Sterling Haydens that's for sure.

GulfportDoc

02-24-23, 08:58 PM

That wasn't the one i was thinking of but that was pretty funny. Marilyn was adorable in this movie.
I thought maybe you were referring to Hayden's line, "Don't bone me". He meant don't treat him like a piker, but of course today, to "bone" someone means something entirely else....:cool:
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Gideon58

02-27-23, 03:37 PM

M3gan
Take the 1978 Anthony Hopkins thriller Magic and throw in a dash of The Terminator and you have the gist of a somewhat effective 2022 nail biter called M3gan that does provide some terror on the surface, but leaves too much unexplained to be a full-bodied movie experience.
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Gemma is a robotic engineer for a giant toy company called Funki Toys, who has just gained custody of her niece, Katie after her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident that Katie somehow survived. Gemma and her team are putting the finishing touches on a doll/robot they have named M3gan that Gemma programs so that Katie has primary control of her, forcing Funki to incorporate Katie into the launch of the doll onto the market, at the whopping cost of $10,000 a pop, but before this launch can happen, M3gan mysteriously begins taking on a life and mind of her own.
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Screenwriter Akela Cooper has provided a screenplay adapted from a story by James Wan that seems to offer originality as it begins, but as the story progresses, seems to borrow a lot of things from other movies. Gemma seems to be in complete control of M3gan as the film opens, just like Anthony Hopkins' Corky seemed to have control of his dummy Fats in Magic, but like Corky, once Gemma loses control of her creation, no explanation is offered as to exactly how it happens and M3gan becomes unstoppable. Early on, there are shots of M3gan's interior computer brain that should be offering information like the Terminator's interior brain, but they don't, giving what we're watching little basis in realism. On the other hand, I did love the touch of black comedy provided by Gemma's boss, David, sort of a contemporary Larry Tate who is looking at nothing but the money Funki can make from M3gan. And how M3gan learned that David's assistant Kurt tried to steal Megan's programs was also a mystery.
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It was difficult to pinpoint exactly when Gemma loses control of M3gan...initially, all Gemma has to say is "turn off" and the doll ceases to function, but I did like that at first M3gan protested being turned off but did and then just ignored turn off commands. After watching her shaking beginnings with Gemma as her new guardian, we understand Katie's connection to M3gan, but it takes Katie way too long to figure out what's going on.
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The technicians behind the creation of the title character are to be applauded. It is clear that there is an actually actress under there, but she is efficiently made up with authentic china doll-like skin that gives her a non-human look with those frightening and piercing eyes that were impossible to read for most of the time. M3gan definitely develops a mind of her own at some point, despite the fact we that we never know exactly what she' thinking. Allison Williams from the HBO series Girls is a little one-note as Gemma, but I loved Ronny Chieng as David and the physicality that Amie McDonald brought to the title character was impressive. There are some scares provided, but too many dangling plot elements hurt this one a little. There is also a not-so-subtle set-up for a sequel. 3.5

Gideon58

02-28-23, 06:30 PM

The Lemon Drop Kid
A sparkling performance by Bob Hope anchors a surprisingly entertaining comedy called The Lemon Drop Kid, that provides pretty consistent laughs thanks to some larger than life character created by Damon Runyon, the creative force behind Guys and Dolls.
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The 1951 comedy finds Hope playing the title character, a fast talking con man who owes $10,000 to a gangster named Moose Moran and he has until Christmas Eve to do it, which is 18 days away. The Kid decides the only way he can raise the money is by creating an old ladies home, using a street peddler friend of his named Nellie Thursday as the front. Unfortunately, the kid makes the mistake of opening up the nursing home in a casino that Moran used to own and another gangster named Oxford Charlie is also onto The Kid's scam and is trying to steal it with help of Brainey Baxter, the kid's girlfriend. who is a chorus girl at a nightclub that Charlie owns.
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Hope gets a big assist here from a very funny screenplay that might be a tad more complex than need be, but works thanks to its focus on two things at which Hope was always an expert: physical comedy and the one-liner. As always with a Hope comedy, you can almost hear the rimshot in the distance as he rattles off his one-liners, but we forgive because nobody did a one-liner like Hope and he makes every one of them work here.
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The Damon Runyon influence is felt throughout, from the Runyan type character names for a lot of the characters to some plot elements that fans of Guys and Dolls might recognize. The subplot of The Kid trying to get out of marrying Brainey reminded me a lot of the relationship between Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide in the Frank Loesser musical, but, if the truth be told, the Kid is a lot funnier than Nathan and might have been the inspiration for Nathan Detroit, since this film was made before the Broadway musical hit the boards. This is also the only film I've seen where Hope appears in drag.
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A couple of musical numbers even get squeezed into the proceedings. Hope and Marilyn Maxwell, who plays Brainey, duet on a number called "It Don't Cost a Dime to Dream" and this is the film that introduced one of the most beloved Christmas songs of all time, "Silver Bells." Hope gets terrific support from a solid supporting cast including Fred Clark as Moose Moran, Lloyd Nolan as Oxford Charlie, Oscar winner Jane Darwell as Nellie Thursday, and William Frawley as Gloomy Willie. It takes a little longer than necessary to wrap, but Hope makes the ride worth it. 3.5

Gideon58

03-01-23, 02:00 PM

You People
2023's You People is a contrived and humorless comedy that is a collaboration between Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris, tbe creator of the ABC sitcom Black-ish that ultimately misses due to a serious lack of chemistry between the stars,
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This is the story of the unlikely romance that develope between a 35 year old Jewish guy named Ezra (Hill) and a beautiful Black Muslim woman named Amira (Lauren London) and how cultural clashes and societal pressure eventually tear them apart
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It was Barris' part as director and co-screenwriter that initially drew me to this film because I was a huge fan of Black-ish, a smart and funny sitcom that addressed a lot of edgy racial issues that The Cosby Show should have but didn't. Unfortunately, the writing here is smug and cliched as we get the expected blind prejudice from Amira's father (brilliantly played by Eddie Murphy), who comes off as a black version of Jack Burns in Meet the Parents. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Ezra's mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), who works so hard at proving how racially tolerant she is, we get the opposite effect and, just like Ezra, we just want her to shut up. The constant use of the "N" word and the word "Jew" gets tiresome quickly, as do Amira's friends always referring to Ezra as "the white guy."
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Barris and Hill attempt to disguise the deficiencies in the story with stellar production values and a serious dose of star power, but the primary reason this film doesn't work is that there is absolutely no chemistry between Hill and London. We never believe the romance is genuine because the destruction of their relationship was too easy. Amira's father never giving Ezra a break was something we've seen in a million movies and just because we're nearing the end of the film's two hour running time, he has this epiphany that comes out of nowhere that wraps up the story in a way too neat little bow. There was one scene in the movie that really worked for me and that was when Ezra has lunch with Amira's father and mother (Nia Long, who looked AMAZING) to ask their blessing to him proposing to Amira, without her presence or knowledge, a bold move on Ezra's part. The scene is brilliant but it's a ten-minute scene in a two hour movie.
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Director Barris does get strong performances from Hill and especially Murphy, who seems to be entering a new phase in his career that he initiated with Mr. Church, but it is the lack of chemistry between Hill and London that eventually does this one in. My first 2023 movie was a real disappointment. 2

Gideon58

03-04-23, 09:55 PM

A Fine Madness
After his first four film appearances as 007, the late Sean Connery found a welcome change of pace with A Fine Madness, a manic and wildly uneven comedy that provides solid adult entertainment thanks to an edgy screenplay and a terrific cast working at the top of their game.
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The 1966 film stars Connery as Samson Shillitoe, a slightly crazed poet who is working on an epic poem, but has writer's block and is unable to finish the poem, while driving his waitress wife Rhoda (Joanne Woodward) crazy and trying to stay two steps ahead of the police who are after him for alimony. Rhoda sees an important psychiatrist named Dr. Oliver West (Patrick O'Neal) on television and is convinced that the doctor can help Samson with his writer's block. Rhoda sends Samson to Dr. West for help, a move that eventually finds Samson institutionalized and facing a lobotomy.
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Elliott Baker's screenplay is rich with some surprisingly adult touches that I didn't see coming. Within the first ten minutes, the central character is observed having sex with a partially naked secretary in an office, a scene which, according to the IMDB, was featured in an edition of PLAYBOY shortly after the film's release. The film also implies that Samson is physically and abusive to poor Rhoda and there is a scene in the final act featuring Dr. West's unhappy wife, Lydia (Jean Seberg) and a horny psychiatirst that today cannot be interpreted as anything but attempted rape. This was pretty adult stuff for 1966, but none of it ever crosses the line that couldn't in 1966.
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Director Irving Kerschner (The Flim Flam Man) keeps this movie at a lightning pace, but its constant shift in tone does make it difficult to stay completely invested in what's going on. Just as we've gotten to really like and care about Samson Shillitoe (even if we aren't supposed to), the forces working against him in the film turn the proceedings darker thsn necessary. The scene where Dr. West and the other doctors at the hospital are discussing the lobotomy is undeniably creepy. As eccentric as Samson might be, there is nothing in his actions that make a lobotomy the answer to his problems. It was also a little annoying how Rhoda's feeling about her husband changed every time she appeared onscreen. Did enjoy the fact that like James Bond, the character's undeniable appeal to the fairer sex does propel the story in directions we don't see coming.
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Despite the problems with the story, the movie remains watchable thanks to a wonderful caast, led by the dashing and charismatic Connery in a performance that commands the screen the way Gene Hackman did in The Royal Tannenbaums...Samson is kind of a jerk, but he's so darned likable. Woodward is a little shrill as Rhoda but I have never enjoyed Seberg onscreen as much as I did here, perfectly matched by O'Neal as her scummy husband. And if you don't blink, you'll also catch appearances from Kay Medford, Zohra Lampert, Colleen Dewhirst, Sorrell Booke, Clive Revill, Jackie Coogan, Bibi Osterwald, Mabel Albertson, Sue Ane Langdon, and Gerald S. O'Loughlin. A slightly exhausting, but still entertaining movie. 3.5

Gideon58

03-08-23, 09:55 PM

Women Talking
Director and screenwriter Sarah Polley scores with 2022's Women Talking, a brutal, disturbing, yet oddly riveting story about a group of deeply religious women who have been through unspeakable horrors in a story whose precious little backstory only fuels the power of the piece.
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This incredible fact based story introduces us to a group of deeply religious women who are the female population of a religious community simply known as The Colony. For almost four years, these women have been drugged and physically and sexually abused by the men of the community. The men have temporarily gone to the city and the women grab the opportunity to decide what to do. They vote on whether to stay and fight or to just leave. After the vote they have a meeting to discuss what to do and a young man named August (the only adult male in the film) is there to offer advice and take the minutes of the meeting.
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Polley has mounted an ugly story on a prisiine canvas, giving it even more of a disturbance factor. We don't see any of the abusers in this story, in fact, the only thing we see in terms of backstory is flashes of some of the women with bruises on their legs and blood all over their nightgowns. Eventually, this forces the viewer to focus on the pain these women have gone through and their desperation to be rid of it, which I'm pretty sure was Polley's intentions.
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It's lovely watching these women allow their faith to guide them through their decision making process and not the expected pure anger that should accompany such an experience. I loved that only a few of the women felt they should definitely stay or definitely leave as the story opens and that most of them are truly conflicted about what they should do. I also found myself concerned about August. Couldn't help but wonder what his fate would be when the men returned.
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Polley has crafted a story so compelling that it has earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, the latter of which I think it should win. The cast is uniformly excellent with standout work from Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Claire Foy, and Ben Whishaw, who was robbed of a Supporting Actor nomination for his sensitive turn as August. Not for all tastes, but for those game, an edgy and challenging film experience. 4

Gideon58

03-11-23, 08:07 PM

How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life
The recent passing of Stella Stevens motivated my first look at a saucy little battle of the sexes from 1968 called How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, which features a talky but intelligent screenplay that almost makes up for the now dated ideas about male/female relationships that are the roots of this comedy.
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Harry Hunter (Eli Wallach) is a married department store executive who is separated from his wife and currently living with his sweet and level-headed mistress, Muriel (Anne Jackson). Harry's best friend, Dave Sloan (Dean Martin), a confirmed bachelor has failed miserably at trying to convince Harry to return to his wife, so he decides to go after the mistress, but he mistakes a store salesgirl named Carol Corman (Stevens) for Harry's mistress and pretends to romance her, but avoids marriage by claiming to be a widower not ready for marraige again. Eventually, Carol learns the truth about Dave and puts together an elaborate plan for revenge.
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Stanley Shapiro, who won an Oscar for writing Pillow Talk, and Nick Monaster are the co-authors of this seemingly sophisticated comedy that found its genesis in the "will they or won't they" comedies like Pillow Talk and even utilized storytelling techniques employed in the 1959 classic, like the inner monologues between Dave and Carol during their opening scenes in the elevator, but the story definitely goes to a more adult level than Pillow Talk ever did as Carol's plan for revenge is based on the theory that a wrong or neglected mistress deserves continued compensation even after the relationship ended. This film was actually made a couple of decades before Michelle Triola Marvin sued Lee Marvin for palimony.
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According to the IMDB, the role of Carol was originally written for Marilyn Monroe, but was shelved after her death. Ironically, Dean Martin was Monroe's final leading man on the film she was working on at the time of her death, Something's Gotta Give. As the story unfolds, it is clear that the part of Carol was probably conceived for Monroe, but Stella Stevens brings an intelligence to the character that Marilyn probably wouldn't have been capable of, especially near the end of her career. The Carol character does initially seem to come off as kind of a ditz, but her intelligence is peeled away in layers as the story progresses, making Carl's machinations of Dave completely believable.
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Director Fielder Cook (A Big Hand for the Little Lady) keeps the story bouncy and always in forward motion. Martin seems to be phoning it in as Dave, but the vivacious performance by Stella Stevens and the terrific support from Wallach and real life spouse Jackson make this one worth watching. 3.5

Gideon58

03-11-23, 09:57 PM

Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
Netflix is behind a ferocious return to the stand up mic for Chris Rock in a 2023 concert called Chris Rock: Selective Outrage that provides the same kind of edgy challenging humor that Rock provided in the 90's on HBO.
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As the concert began, shot live from Baltimore, Maryland, with Rock strolling onstage dressed all in white, I have to admit the first thing that flashed through my mind was 1980's Richard Pryor Live from the Sunset Strip, filmed right after the freebasing accident that put him in the hospital because the audience in this concert were obsessed with wanting to hear exactly what happened. Needless to say, I was on pins and needles waiting to hear what Chris would have to say about what happened at the Oscars last year. Of course, he waited until the end of the concert to talk about it. I was immensely impressed with the kind of bold humor that made Chris the king of HBO during the 1990's and a huge improvement over his last concert Tambourine.
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As expected, Chris covers a myriad of topics, including a reference to Robert Kardashian and the OJ trial that initially seems kind of a dated subject, but Chris manages to make it work. I loved when he talked about what he felt America's number one addiction is and his answer will definitely surprise you. Chris returned to a Rock staple here: providing jokes that only provided laughs from selected parts of the audience, especially during his tirade regarding abortion, that produced some initial rumbling from the audience, but eventually morphed into some major laughs.
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This concert was also the first time I've seen Chris talk about something that most stand-ups love to talk about. This was the first time I've ever heard Chris talk about his daughters. His story about how a field trip to Portugal ended up getting daughter Lola kicked out of school had me on the floor.
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And yes, he makes us wait for it, but when he finally gets around to the subject of Will Smith, he is merciless and this final ten minutes of the concert are worth the price of admission. This was the return of the King of HBO, courtesy of Netflix, that returned Rock to the stand up mic where everything he says is absolutely correct. 4

Gideon58

03-16-23, 12:10 PM

Can't Hardly Wait
1998's Can't Hardly Wait is a semi-raunchy, sporadically funny teen comedy that borrows inspiration from teen comedies of the past and provided inspiration for teen comedies of the future, but ultimately is an uneven movie experience.
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The canvas for this comedy is a graduation party where several separate stories unfold. The primary one being the breakup between star jock Mike (Peter Facinelli) and girlfriend Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who has been the secret object of lust for Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry). Nerdy William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) has an elaborate plan of revenge against Mike, who shamed him in front of the entire student body; and a ditzy girl (Melissa Joan Hart) who seems to have come to the party for the sole purpose of having everyone sign her yearbook.
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Co-directors and screenwriters Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan have affectionately captured different kinds of teen angst but the society of cliques that make up every high school and provided a teenage soap opera that often substitutes raunch for genuine comedy. A lot of scenes go on a lot longer than they should, stretching credibility to the nth degree. The story of Mike and Amanda is hard to stay with because Amanda comes off as an icy bitch; the deconstruction of William's revenge plan against Mike reminds me of Farmer Ted in Sixteen Candles and about halfway through the film, we just want to strangle yearbook girl. The only story that sustained interest for this reviewer was when a brainy but vivacious girl named Denise (Lauren Ambrose) gets locked in a bathroom with her childhood BFF (Seth Green),, who seems to think he's black.
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The film starts off strong setting up the varied relationships, but the individual stories become less and less interesting as the film progresses. There's a whole lot of attention paid to Amanda's arrival at the party, where the party guests part like the Red Sea and the camera zooms in on her while a wind machine gently blows her hair. This scene is perfectly recreated in the teen movie satire Not Another Teen Movie. And William's transition from nerd to rock idol because he lip syncs to a song is hard to swallow and goes on way too long.
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A lot of familiar faces pop up along the way here including Jaime Pressly, Sean Patrick Thomas, Freddy Rodriguez, Jenna Elfmann, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, and Chris Owen, who found screen immortality the following year playing the Sherminator in American Pie, but this is passable entertainment, not much more. 3

Gideon58

03-16-23, 10:00 PM

Living
Bill Nighy's Oscar-nominated performance is the centerpiece of a melancholy character study called Living that had this reviewer riveted to the screen.
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It's England in the early 1950's where we meet Mr. Williams, a long time government employee who instills an unspoken fear in his employees and seems to be just an inconvenience to his son and daughter-in-law. Everything changes for Mr. Williams when he learns he has a terminal illness and decides to take time away from the job to try and enjoy the time he has left, even though he is clueless as to how.
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The crisp and concise screenplay doesn't waste a lot of time with exposition. We learn about Mr. Williams through his employees on their daily train ride and from his heartless family. So we're not terribly surprised when the only two people he tells about his illness during the story are a stranger and a lovely young former employee named Miss Harris, who isn't ready to handle this. Also loved the turn the final third of the film takes revealing Mr. Williams to be a different person than we're initially led to believe.
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Nighy, who pretty much stole Love Actually from its impressive all-star cast, lights up the screen here in a powerhouse performance where, like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prade and Christian Bale in Vice, barely speaks above a stage whisper. Especially loved the scenes where he sang in the bar and when he asked Miss Harris to have a drink with him because he didn't want to go home.
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Nighy's superb performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Outstanding Leading Actor as well as a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Big shout out to Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch's lush music score, which reminded me of some of Max Steiner's best work. A very special motion picture experience. 4

Gideon58

03-17-23, 03:35 PM

State Fair (1962)
1962's State Fair is the third film version of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that doesn't really bring anything new to the story, but there are a couple of performances, including one by a former 20th Century Fox movie queen, that make it worth a look.
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The musical focuses on the Frake family, a close-knit farm family who reside in the fictional town of Banning Texas, who are excitedly preparing to travel to the annual State Fair in Dallas. Dad Abel is preparing to entering his favorite hog, Blueboy in the boar contest and his wife, Melissa is looking forward to the mincemeat contest with her new receipe, which includes a generous helping of alcohol. Son Wayne is planning to enter the stock car race and dreamy-eyed daughter Margy is looking for a new romance, bored with her current one. Wayne manages to find romance as well wth a sexy showgirl named Emily, who might have a questionable past.
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This is typical musical comedy fare, held together by one of Rodgers and Hammerstien's most melodious scores. but if the truth be told. the film grinds to a screeching halt whenever the music stops because the dialogue is riddled with cliches and the plot is about as predictable as they come, but that can be excused to an extent because it's a musical. The funniest scene in the film occurs when the judges of the mincemeat contest get drunk on Melissa's concoction. Viewer patience is really tested though when Abel sings a love song to his hog, though Melissa's wisecracking about Abel loving the hog more than her never get old.
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The score includes "It's a Grand Night for Singing", "That's for Me", "Isn't it Kinda Fun", and "It Might as Well be Spring", which won the Best Song Oscar for the 1945 version of the film. "Never Say No", "More than Just a Friend", and "Willing and Eager" were written by Richard Rodgers especially for this film.
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Fox did put some money into this production, making it fun to look at, but it doesn't make the story anymore interesting, and the one note performances of Pamela Tiffin as Margy, Pat Boone as Wayne, and Bobby Darin as Jerry don't help. However, I really enjoyed Ann-Margret, impressive in only her 2nd film appearance as the flashy showgirl Emily and in her final film appearance, the legendary Alice Faye, who steals every scene she's in as Melissa Frake. Wally Cox is also very funny in a cameo as the drunken mincemeat judge, but truthfully, the 1945 verison with Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews was better. 2.5

Gideon58

03-18-23, 12:07 PM

80 for Brady
Despite a serious shot of star power going for it, 80 for Brady is a corny, predictable, and dreadfully unfunny comedy that produced surprisngly few laughs for this reviewer.
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The 2023 film stars Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin as four female senior citizen BFF's who are serious fans of the New England Patriots in general and of Tom Brady in particular whose dream is realized when they win tickets to Super Bowl LI where the Patriots faced the Atlanta Falcons.
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Can't recall the last time such high expectations for a film were so quickly dashed. The screenplay by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern comes off as an extended episode of The Golden Girls with these four women finding themselves in one silly situation after another from the moment they win these tickets. The ladies initially come off as likable but the attempt to flesh out the characters by giving them individual backstories that have nothing to do with Tom Brady just make the overly cute and overlong journey to the conclusion a very labored and wasn't nearly as funny as everyone involved seemed to think it was. An hour and 40 minute movie seemed five hours long.
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The ladies' adventure at The NFL Experience went on way too long, especially the spicy buffalo wing eating contest in which Field participates. Credibility is stretched throughout the film as these women somehow manage to get into a lot of pre-Super Bowl parties and events that shouldn't have been so easy for them. The scene where three of the ladies eat marijuana gummie bears proved that the writers don't know anything about the effects of marijuana and worst of all, the implied cosmic connection between Brady and Tomlin's character, which reminded me of Steve Martin talking to the highway billboard in LA Story. And when Tomlin's character actually gets to give Brady a halftime pep talk, that was check out time for this reviewer.
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The four stars work very hard to make this viable entertainment, but they deserve better than this. Serious star gazers will notice appearances from Billy Porter, Rob Corrdry, Harry Hamlin, Patton Oswalt, Glynn Turman, Alex Moffat, Sara Gilbert, Andy Richter, Sally Kirkland and Guy Fieri. If the truth be told, the only laughs for this reviewer came from Bob Balaban in a hysterical turn as Field's husband, who is completely dependent on her and lost when she heads to the Superbowl. Only star power keeps this film from a lower rating. Tom Brady is billed as the producer of this mess. 2

Gideon58

03-20-23, 03:42 PM

Three Coins in the Fountain
A 1954 Best Picture nominee, Three Coins in the Fountain is a sumptuously mounted romantic melodrama that bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous year's How to Marry a Millionaire, both guided by the same director.
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This is the story of three American secretaries who are working at a large publishing firm in Rome, Italy and their individual searches for romance. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been in the eternal city for the past 15 years working for a famous novelist (Clifton Webb) who she has been harboring a secret crush on; Anita (Jean Peters) works at the firm and has announced she's returning to America to get married, but she is really in love with the firm's translator (Rossano Brazzi); Maria (Maggie McNamara) is newly arrived in Rome but falls instantly in love with a wealthy prince (Louis Jourdan).
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On the surface, the film might appear to be a rehash of How to Marry a Millionaire, but this story is told with a much more sincere and straighter face than the 1953 comedy. In that film, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable have given themselves a one year time limit to land millionaire husbands. This film is purely about love and romance. Only one of the three men in this story is truly wealthy and even to the girl pursuing him, it appears her attraction to him has very little to do with money. Anita's romance gets her man fired but it doesn't stop her from loving him and Miss Frances spends most of the film hiding her feelings for Webb's character.
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The film also benefits from gorgeous Rome scenery making the film look like a stack of picture postcards. As a matter of fact the film won the Oscar that year for color cinematography. The adult screenplay about the pursuit of love instead of the pursuit of material things like the girls in Millionaire is also a big plus, but director Jean Negulesco manages to take the romance that bubbled underneath the surface in Millionaire and allows it to lovingly be brought to the forefront here.
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Gorgeous costumes for the ladies and Victor Young's music, including the Oscar-winning title tune, sung over the opening credits by Frank Sinatra are icing on this cinematic cake. McGuire and Peters are lovely and Clifton Webb offers another of his wonderfully understated performances as the writer. Lovers of classic melodrama will be in heaven here. Remade as The Pleasure Seekers. 3.5

Gideon58

03-21-23, 02:08 PM

White Noise (2022)
Director/Screenwriter Noah Baumbach has reunited the stars of his 2012 film Frances Ha for a cinematic acid trip called White Noise that claims an underlying theme but all this reviewer saw was over half a dozen different stories being introduced and waiting for a connection between them that never materialized.
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Adam Driver stars as Jack, a college professor who teaches Nazism and leads a rather harried existence with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) and the varied children they have produced during the course of both of their four marriages, The children seem to be living in a constant state of terror and paranoia about absolutely everything and seem obsessed with trying to scare their parents to death. A supposed connection is then revealed through Jack's Hitler studies and an accident between a truck and a train which causes a toxic accident resulting in the evacuation of the entire town.
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And this is just the beginning of this impossible story that starts off as typical Baumbach fare, a filmmaker who has rarely gone the commercial route in his storytelling and this film is no exception. The film opens with a fellow professor of Jack's named Murray (Don Cheadle) teaching a class about cinematic car crashes which segues into Jack's Hitler class and then a dual lecture where Jack is talking about Hitler and Murray is talking about Elvis, which leads to the toxic accident and an evacuation, which seems to connect to the alleged underlying theme of this story, which seems to be the fear of death.
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But just when we think Jack and his family are going to meet their greatest fear during this toxic accident, it ends as abruptly as it started and all of a sudden things seem to be back to normal. Then the story suddenly shifts to Babette's addiction to an unknown drug, which leads to alleged adultery, attempted murder and a visit to a church turned into an emergency room staffed by nuns who speak German. By this time, I was just trying to keep my eyes open.
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Baumbach's direction is striking, filling the screen with some unforgettable imagery, but the connection that we keep waiting for with these separate stories never comes. Driver is terrific as is Sam Nivola as his son, Heinrich. Nivola is the son of actor Allesandro Nivola, best known for playing Castor Troy in Face/Off, but this is easily the nadir of Baumbach's career and two hours and sixteen minutes of my life I'll never get back. And a gold star to anyone who can explain what goes on during the closing credits.
1.5

Gideon58

03-22-23, 05:57 PM

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
Doris Day was one of the biggest box office attractions of the 1950's, but her star began a serious decline in the 1960's thanks to some really inferior films like the 1968 alleged comedy Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, a dreadfully unfunny film that has a fictional story centered around a non-fictional event.
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Back in 1965, New York City suffered a blackout at exactly 5:27 PM that lasted approximately 12 hours. In this film, hours before the blackout, we meet Maggie Garrison (Day), a Broadway actress who catches her philandering husband, Peter (Patrick O'Neal) in a compromising position with a reporter with whom she had just done an interview. A furious Maggie fights her way through the blackout and manages to travel to her country home in Connecticut. She takes some sleep medication and passes out while Peter is enroute to the house to explain his behavior.
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Meanwhile, a hotshot young executive named Waldo Zane (Robert Morse) has just been passed over for a promotion and retaliates by embezzling two million dollars from the company. He buys a car from a stranded motorist for $2200 and heads for Boston, but the car breaks down in front of Maggie's house and also takes the same medication that finds Waldo and Maggie passed out together on the same sofa.
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It's mind blowing that it actually took three writers to come up with this juvenile screenplay where a fictional story is set against non-fictional events, almost always disastrous for a film. Logic and continuity just go out the window in favor of this slightly smarmy story that attempts to capitalize Day's screen persona...the play that Maggie is appearing in is called THE CONSTANT VIRGIN and the script even borrows Oscar Levant's famous line about knowing Doris before she was a virgin.
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There's so much stuff that probably went unnoticed in 1968 that looks pretty stupid today. It's hard to believe that both Maggie and Waldo would fall asleep on the same sofa, falling all over each other and never realize they were sharing a sofa. The only laugh out loud moment for me was when we saw thousands of stranded commuters in Grand Central Station all holding lit candles and the minute the lights come back on, all of the candles have conveniently vanished.
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Doris tries hard to make this story work, but she's really miscast here, doing a lot of silly slapstick that was more suited to Lucille Ball. It's no surprise that Day would only appear in one more film after this one before forsaking Hollywood until her death in 2019. Robert Morse is a lot of fun as Waldo, a darker variation on J Pierpont Finch. Terry-Thomas struggles with a thankless role as Maggie's director, who is allegedly Russian but the actor speaks with the same British accent he always did. Even hardcore Day fans will find getting through this a struggle, despite the very economic running time. 2

Gideon58

03-25-23, 03:34 PM

Bones and All
The question of whether or not destiny can be controlled and/or altered seems to be the underlying theme of 2022's Bones and All, a disturbing and chilling blend of horror and romance that, despite a dangling plot point here and there, had this reviewer riveted to the screen for this unapologetic acid trip, directed by the director of 2017 Best Picture nominee Call Me By Your Name.
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The film introduces us to Maren, a troubled young teenager who has been living on the periphery of polite society thanks to a personal and horrifying destiny that her family tried to hide from her, eventually sending her on a journey to learn what happened to her and if she has any power over it, guided by an old man named Sully and a sexy and charismatic drifter named Lee, whose similar destinies find them in a battle for Maren's soul.
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The screenplay for this seemingly unique film experience actually seems to be rooted in Stephen King films like The Shining and Doctor Sleep that offer a central character completely conflicted about a destiny that part of them seems to enjoy and part of them really wants to embrace, but still forces them into a self-imposed exile that eventually becomes too confining. We're distressed as the initial impression that her parents tried to protect Maren from who she is is quashed about halfway through the film. Her initial encounter with Sully, though disturbing, is on the money. However, her seemingly coincidental meeting of Lee, who has seemingly embraced his destiny, does raise questions for her, but her questions are clouded thanks to the beginning of the very unconventional romance that develops between them.
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Director Luca Guadagnino employs endless imagination in creating this uncomfortable but balanced mixture of horror and romance, that walks a perfect tightrope between both genres. Every time the viewer begins settling into one genre, the story randomly brings us back to the other genre with no rhyme or reason. The viewer finds himself torn regarding what Lee's influence is going to do to Maren's journey and yet we are drawn to the sexual attraction between the two, which leaps off the screen. As much as want Maren and Lee to be together, they also seem doomed.
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The film is rich with just as much bloody and unapologetic violence as it is with sexual tension, providing a cinematic experience that forces complete attention from the viewer. Zendaya-look-alike Taylor Russell is a revelation as Maren and Timothee Chalamet offers a sexy and dangerous performance as Lee that galvanizes the screen. Oscar winner Mark Rylance is also appropriately creepy as Sully. There are small elements of the story that remain unexplained, but this film still rivets the viewer to the screen. 4

Gideon58

03-27-23, 03:32 PM

Warrior (2011)
Sports drama and family dysfunction drama blend to spectacular effect in 2011's Warrior, an edgy and often ugly tale of a tattered family attempting to reconnect that will keep the viewer riveted the screen, despite the film's slight overlength.
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Paddy Conlon is a former boxing coach who destroyed his family and career thanks to alcoholism and as the film opens, we learn that Paddy is approaching 1000 days sober, but this does not repair the damage his drinking did to his relationship with his two sons. Younger son Tommy Conlon is a war hero who, despite doing his share of heavy drinking, has decided to resume his career in Mixed Martial Arts and has decided to put the past in the past and asks Paddy to train him. Tommy's older brother, Brendon is also a mixed martial artist but because of family obligations, gave up the sport full time to become a teacher, but now, on the verge of losing everything, decides to re-enter the ring as well, with no help from his father. The lives of Paddy and his two sons converge upon a Mixed Martial Arts tournament in Atlantic City, where the winning purse is $5,000,000.
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Director and co-screenwriter Gavin O'Connor (The Accountant) has crafted a story that is really multiple stories that eventually intersect and tangle into one often moving and emotionally manipulative story. We have a man trying to repair the damage of his alcoholism to little or no avail. We have a frightened former soldier trying to escape his overseas mistake through a new career and his inflexibility regarding the mistakes of his father and his older brother, who he feels deserted him at a difficult turning point in his life. We also have Brendon, a man who gave up his passion for the realities of survival, but finds himself in an untenable position when his life begins to implode and a return to Mixed Martial Arts seem to be the only viable option.
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O'Connor effectively chooses to let his camera tell a lot more of the story than the minimal backstory does. Love the shot of Brendon returning to his house after rejecting his father and the camera is from Brendon's view while the image of Paddy still standing outside by his car gets smaller and smaller. Another thing that O'Connor does to maximum effect, like Ron Howard did in Apollo 13, is that he tries to tell this intimate family story through everyone involved, even on the periphery. The glance at Brendon's former students who followed his athletic career all the way to Atlantic City could have easily been omitted, but O'Connor's inclusion of the story gave it a layer we really don't see coming. And maybe I'm just getting old, but I also never saw Paddy and Brendon facing each other as the final opponents the tournament coming which I won't say anything else about here.
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O'Connor gets first rate assistance from his film editing team, who make the fight sequences crackle. He also works wonders with a terrific cast: Frank Grillo underplays nicely as Brendon's trainer, whose enthusiasm about the project changes as it progresses, Joel Edgerton brings real heart to the role of Brendon Conlon, making you feel everything he feels and Nick Nolte's powerhouse Paddy Conlon earned him his third Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor. Above all though is Tom Hardy, another actor I am adding to my list of actors being incapable of giving a bad performance, who is nothing short of electrifying as Tommy Conlon, a role he completely disappears inside of with seemingly little effort and bringing a truly tortured movie character to frightening fruition. A commanding motion picture experience that will simultaneously entertain and haunt. 4.5

Gideon58

03-28-23, 03:33 PM

Blue Jean
Films like Philadelphia, The Children's Hour, and Carrie flashed through my head as I watched an edgy and compelling 2022 drama called Blue Jean, a story about how homophobia can destroy lives.
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It's 1988 England and apparently Margaret Thatcher was backing a lot of legislation that clearly discriminated against homosexuals and this provides the canvas for this story of a young lesbian gym teacher named Jean, who has been living a quietly closeted life for quite awhile but she fears her life could crumble when one of her 15 year old students spots her in a gay bar.
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The AIDS crisis was at its zenith in 1988 and people everywhere were terrified and were convinced that the only solution was to wipe homosexuality from the planet. This seems to be the basis of writer and director Georgia Oakley's story that eventually winds down to how Jean's life is affecting others rather than herself. We see her relationship with girlfriend Viv fall apart because Viv is tired of living in the closet as well as Jean's sister's sudden discomfort with Jean babysitting for her nephew, who innocently tells his mother there was a woman at Aunt Jean's house.
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More than anything, this film is about the danger of lies and secrets regarding these matters that can completely devastate people on all sides of the issue. The film broaches the subject of whether or not homosexuality is a choice by informing us halfway through the film that Jean is divorced from a man. The damage of someone being bullied about their sexuality can cause damage as well as we watch the young student, Lois, bullied by her classmates, scenes that reminded me of the opening locker room scenes in Carrie, which eventually lead to an accusation of sexual assault where Jean makes her first truly incorrect in this story and finds there's no turning back.
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Oakley has crafted a story that is slightly manipulative, making the viewer really empathize with what Jean is going through, but said empathy is challenged during the final third of the film, but eventually it does come to light that Jean really doesn't deserve what she goes through here. Oakley pulls luminous performances from Rosey McEwen as Jean, Kerry Hayes as Viv, and Lucy Halliday as the troubled Lois. Chris Roe's lush music score perfectly frames this sensitive and disturbing story. 4

KeyserCorleone

03-28-23, 06:09 PM

Gideon58

03-29-23, 03:15 PM

I gave Warrior the same rating. Having said that, I was actually hoping that those two wouldn't be the teo finalists, because, come on. That's kid's show writing for an adult movie.

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I don't know why, but it never occurred to me that they would be facing each other in the finals. I thought one of them would get eliminated early on and be in the corner of the other.

Gideon58

03-29-23, 03:38 PM

Berserk! (1967)
From the "So bad it's funny" school of filmmaking comes 1968's Berserk!, a cliched and melodramatic attempt at thrills that really doesn't do anything but produce unintentional laughs.
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In her second to last feature film appearance, Joan Crawford plays Monica Rivers, the ruthless and icy owner of a second rate traveling circus having financial troubles, who is shocked by what initially appears to be the accidental death of her tightrope walker. The event brings a surge in box office receipts that Monica gladly welcomes and decides to soldier on, but when her business partner is murdered the following night, his death has authorities looking at the tightrope walker's death and it is decided that both deaths were murder and Monica quickly comes into spotlight as the prime suspect.
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Monica's troubles are complicated by the appearance of Frank Hawkins, a tightrope walker with a shady past who way too coincidentally shows up to replace the dead guy and eventually decides he wants to be Monica's new business partner. Monica's daughter, Angela, also shows up, freshly kicked out of boarding school, who wants to become part of her mother's circus as way of getting the attention she feels she has never gotten from Mom.
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Once again, as with The Greatest Show on Earth and Billy Rose's Jumbo, the circus appears to be a hopelessly dated setting for a soap opera-ish screenplay that is constructed with little imagination or originality. The first half of the movie works so hard at setting up Monica as the killer, that we just know there's no way it could possibly be her. Despite her acting guilty for the first half of the story, her guilt all of a sudden turns to fear as a third murder occurs and people start following her in the shadows.
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There's no denying that it is a lot of fun watching the legendary Crawford, 60 years old at time and being allowed to display an incredible pair of legs, chewing up scenery like only she can and almost making this silliness watchable. There is no denying that whenever Crawford is not screen, the film screeches to a dead halt, especially when director Jim O'Connelly hands the screen over to what appear to be real circus acts, including trained poodles, angry lions, and elephants trained to step over terrified looking showgirls. Even more screen time is eaten by a silly musical number called "It Must Be Me" featuring the strong man and the bearded lady.
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Crawford does her best to disguise her obvious embarrassment over what she has gotten herself involved in. Ty Hardin's bland performance as Frank doesn't help and he has no chemistry with Crawford. Judy Geeson, who fared much better the same year as Pamela Dare in To Sir with Love, is over the top here as the spoiled brat Angela. Sixties sexpot Diane Dors also provides her share of laughs as the nasty magician's assistant. Even hardcore Crawford fans will have trouble getting through this unintended giggle fest. 2

Gideon58

03-30-23, 03:42 PM

A Man Called Otto
Despite the accustomed splendid performance from two time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, the 2022 film A Man Called Otto suffers from an overly detailed screenplay that offers a little more information to the viewer than necessary.
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Hanks plays Otto Anderson, a grumpy widower who has never gotten over the death of his wife, Sonya, and has vowed to her and himself that he will join her via suicide (the opening scene finds Otto in a store buying rope with which to hang himself). Much to his chagrin, Otto finds his mission to end his life complicated by a pregnant Latino housewife named Marisol, his guilt about his friend Ruben's Parkinson's disease which has turned him into a vegetable, and a young transgender youth who was a student of Sonya's.
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This film's origin is a novel called A Man Called Ove", which was adapted into a 2015 Swedish film. In terms of intentions, this film hits a bullseye, going a lot of the places you expect it go, even though initially it comes off as a rehash of Jack Nicholson's About Schmidt or Woody Harrelson's Wilson, but additional layers are revealed here that take this story to another level than those films. Unfortunately, these layers come out in the form of several flashback sequences that are supposed to legitimize why Otto is the way he is, but they take all the mystery out of the Otto character and take all the work away from the viewer. Imagine if Lawrence Kasdan had stuck to his original concept for The Big Chill and kept in all of Kevin Costner's scenes as Alex? The mystery appeal of Alex as a character would have been quashed and the empathy we're supposed to have for Otto disappears here because the screenplay does all the work, leaving nothing to the imagination or to Tom Hanks. Not to mention that Otto makes four attempts to kill himself during the film and he is interrupted by a knock at his door every time...are we really supposed to believe that Otto didn't see this as some sort of sign?
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Director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland; Stranger Than Fiction) offers sensitive guidance to Hanks and the rest of the cast, but this story would have been so much more powerful if the screenwriters and Forster had trusted the story to the Otto character and kept him in the present, where the presentation of his past from his lips would have been so much more powerful than the flashbacks peppered throughout the film, which just made the film longer than it needed to be.
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Hanks is always worth watching though and this film is no exception and he gets terrific support from Mariana Trevino, in a star-making performance as Marisol. Thomas Newman's beautifully understated music is also a big plus, I just wish that a little more of what happens in this movie was left to present day Otto and to our imaginations. 3.5

Gideon58

04-01-23, 09:30 PM

All Fall Down
The author of Bus Stop and the director of the original The Manchurian Candidate collaborate on a moody and compelling 1962 melodrama called All Fall Down that works due to a screenplay that doesn't play all its cards at once and a spectacular ensemble cast working at the top of their game
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As the film opens, young Clinton Willart (Brandon DeWilde) is observed bailing his no good drifter older brother, Berry-Berry (Warren Beatty) out of jail after he physically assaulted a prostitute. Clinton attempts to reconcile Berry-Berry with their parents: Ralph (Karl Malden) is a sweet-natured but hard drinking soul with a bit of a sexist nature who probably isn't above hitting a woman either and his wife, Annabel (Angela Lansbury) is a domineering, well-intentioned but smothering mother figure whose love for her sons borders on incestuous. Throw into the mix Echo O'Brien (Eva Marie Saint), the slightly trampy daughter of a childhood friend's of Annabell's, who Clinton is seriously crushing on even though he is 16 and she's 30, but when she meets Berry-Berry, all bets with Clinton are off.
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William Inge, who had just won an Oscar the previous year for his screenplay for Splendor in the Grass, adapted this screenplay from a novel by James O'Herlihy, that features a lot of surprisingly adult themes for a 60's film that had a real Tennessee Williams feel to it. Especially the younger man/older woman dynamic between Beatty and Saint. We are introduced to a severely broken family here, but Inge never feels the need to overload the audience with a lot of backstory or flashbacks, but allowing the present to fuel audience imagination about what we missed before the movie started. There are a couple of starts in the story that never finish like when Berry-Berry gets picked up in an early scene by a lonely wealthy housewife (Constance Ford) and we never see her again.
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If the truth be told, the main reason I wanted to watch this movie was I wanted to watch something with Angela Lansbury that I hadn't seen and I really got lucky because Lansbury's dazzling performance is the best thing about this movie. She completely dominates the proceedings with this rich performance that galvanizes the screen but she never steals anyone else's thunder either. This was the kind of performance that helped to make Lansbury arguably, the greatest character actress who ever blessed the silver screen.
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Warren Beatty's sex-on-legs Berry-Berry, in only his second feature film appearance, is a lot of fun and Eva Marie Saint is a total eye opener as Echo. Have never seen Saint play such a sexually-charged character. Brandon DeWilde also scores as Clinton. Alex North's music perfectly frames this melodrama made completely watchable thanks to the top-notch performances. An over-looked gem from the 1960's. 4

Gideon58

04-03-23, 07:11 PM

Windfall,
Despite a spotty screenplay, the 2022 Netflix film Windfall is a claustrophobic hostage drama that initially provides some nervous laughs but remains watchable thanks to a couple of surprise twists during the final act and solid performances from the leading men.
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Jason Segel plays a man (billed as "Nobody") who breaks into the vacation home of a tech billionaire and is about to leave with the guy's Rolex and about a thousand dollars when he is interrupted by the cocky CEO (Jesse Plemmons) and his nubile young bride (Lily Collins). The CEO offers to get the guy half a million dollars in exchange for he and his wife's safety but he can't get the money to the house until the morning, forcing the guy to spend the night with his hostages.
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Segel actual co-wrote the screenplay with Charlie McDowell (who is married to Lily Collins) and Justin Lader, whose story provides a couple interesting layers revealed almost immediately that actually take this a notch above the average hostage drama. It's revealed almost immediately that this billionaire's marriage is not something based on any kind of grand passion and they have no qualms being honest about that. Nervous laughs are actually initiated as we watch this guy trying to figure out what he's going to do with his hostages because it's plain that this guy is no career criminal; however, we are never told exactly who this guy is or why he's doing this, which kind of made it hard to completely invest in what was going on. The wrinkle of an innocent bystander entering all of this seemed a tad convenience to lead us to a hard to swallow conclusion.
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What was also interesting about this story was the way the CEO showed absolutely no fear regarding the situation he and his wife were in and spent the majority of the running time ridiculing this guy and trying to get him to admit exactly why he was doing this. This guy has no moral barometer at all, evidenced in the scene where he has to call his assistant to arrange for the money and we learn that he's having an affair with her.
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Despite the problematic story, the film remains watchable thanks to a pair of superb performances by Segal and Oscar nominee Jesse Plemmons (The Power of the Dog). Plemmons is especially impressive, playing such an arrogant and unlikable character, really new territory for him. Lily Collins' lifeless performance is a big demerit though...kept picturing someone like Florence Pugh in this role. With a different leading lady and a more concise screenplay, this could have really been something. 3

Gideon58

04-05-23, 09:27 PM

Athena (1954)
One of the lesser offerings from MGM's golden age, 1954's Athena is a pleasant musical diversion that features a pleasant score and some nice comic touches, unfortunately the story was a little overly sophisticated for 1954 movie audiences, not to mention a less than charismatic leading man.
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Adam Shaw (Edmond Purdom) is a handsome attorney considering a run for congress who is engaged to be married. He finds his life turned upside down when he meets Athena (Jane Powell), a professional landscaper and numerologist who is the eldest of seven sisters from a family of health and physical fitness nuts. Even though Adam is engaged, Athena informs him that it is in the stars for her and Adam to marry and won't even let his fiancee deter her. Meanwhile, Adam's old army buddy, nightclub singer Johnny Nyle (Vic Damone) falls for Athena's sister, Minerva (Debbie Reynolds), whose destiny with Johnny is also apparently in the stars.
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This was another musical from the Joe Pasternak unit at MGM, who built several musicals around Powell. This was the second of three films that Powell and Reynolds made together and the second in which they played sisters. Unfortunately, the story for this musical was probably a little off putting for 50's moviegoers. Its focus on things like numerology, astrology, and bodybuilding, a very strange canvas for a musical. There's an underlying theme here that men with muscles have no brains. It reminded me of the way the Ben Stiller film Zoolander gave the same message regarding male models. As of a matter of fact, unlike most MGM musicals, instead of a big production, ends with a Mr. Universe competition.
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The score is pleasant enough, written by Ralph Blaine and Hugh Martin, who wrote the score for Meet Me in St Louis. As a matter of fact, Damone is allowed to reprise a song from that movie, "The Boy Next Door". Also enjoyed "I Never Felt Better", "Vocalize", and "Love Can Change the Stars."
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Powell's lyric soprano commands attention, but Purdom, whose speaking voice sounds like Cary Grant, is dull as dishwater as Adam Shaw. Debbie Reynolds is her usual bundle of energy and does manage to create chemistry with Damone. Louis Calhern steals his few scenes as the girls' grandfather and comedy veteran Kathleen Freeman can be glimpsed as Adam's secretary. Real musical buffs might notice that one of the other sisters is played by Virginia Gibson, who appeared as a bride the same year in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. For hardcore Powell fans only. 2.5

Gideon58

04-06-23, 01:24 PM

Mother, Jugs & Speed
The recent passing of movie goddess Raquel Welch motivated my first viewing of 1976's Mother, Jugs and Speed, a raucous and uneven comedy that tries to do for the ambulance business what M*A*S*H did for war.
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The canvas for this story is a turf war between two ambulance companies, who are seriously competitive about getting to emergency calls first in order to collect their fee, often at the expense of the victim. At one of the companies, we meet the title characters: Mother (Bill Cosby), the cynical veteran who often doesn't take his job as seriously as he should though he's very good at it; Jugs (Welch) is the dispatcher/switchboard operator who really wants to be an EMT driver; Speed (Harvey Keitel) is a suspended cop waiting out an IA investigation where he's been accused of a drug-related crime.
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The screenplay immediately brings to mind the 1970 Robert Altman classic in its attempt to bring humor to what is primarily a very serious subject. It's a little unsettling the way a lot of the ambulance drivers treat what they do with such nonchalance. We observe drivers betting on how many dead bodies they will pick up before midnight, Mother is observed keeping chilled beer in his first aid kit while his co-driver is smoking marijuana. There are some very dated ideas about racism and sexism that become part of the story as well that wouldn't play too favorably in 2023. The story makes jarring and squirm worthy moves from raunchy comedy to serious drama without rhyme or reason, rarely straying from reality, with the possible exception of an early scene of an overweight black woman careening down the street on a runaway gurney.
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Director Peter Yates (Bullitt) keeps the movie moving at a nice clip, even giving a serious homage to his famous chase scene in Bullitt, with a well-filmed chase scene where a police unit is chasing a stolen ambulance. Yates brings an almost frightening realism to a couple of scenes involving a junkie who calls an ambulance in order to get drugs and a scene where Jugs has to deliver a baby in an ambulance.
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Bill Cosby tries hard, but never really convinces as the ambulance driving Hawkeye Pierce of the piece, but I haven't enjoyed Welch onscreen this much since The Three Musketeers. Welch takes full advantage of the fact that even with the sexist moniker, hers is still the smartest character in the movie. She reminded me of Loni Anderson's character on [I]WKRP in Cincinnatti/I]. Welch shines in that scene where Jugs and Speed have to deliver that baby. Harvey Keitel's ingratiating charm as Speed is unlike anything I've seen him do. Mention should also be made of a scene stealing supporting performance from Larry Hagman as a sex-hungry driver. It's not a home run, but there is entertainment value here.
RIP, Raquel. 3.5

Gideon58

04-08-23, 09:46 PM

Cocaine Bear
From the "Put your brain in check and enjoy" school of filmmaking comes 2023's Cocaine Bear, an uneven combination of squirm-worthy laughs and blood-curdling violence that defies logic at every turn and is the seventh directorial effort of actress Elizabeth Banks.
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This allegedly fact-based story opens with a man named Andrew Stanton observed on a plane throwing large bricks of cocaine out of a plane that eventually crashes in Tennessee where Stanton's body is found as is some of the cocaine. However, most of the cocaine lands in a mountain town in Georgia where huge amounts of it is ingested by a female bear, sending her on a killing spree involving a single divorced mom, a pair of hikers, three drug dealers looking for the coke, a veteran cop looking for the dealers, a park ranger and her horny boyfriend, and a trio of dumb teenagers who discover a bunch of the coke and try to steal it for themselves.
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Jimmy Warden's screenplay asks us to accept a lot here, especially how cocaine would affect a bear, but it's almost tolerable due to the tongue in cheek style of the screenplay that provides laugh out loud moments with some startling and bloody violence that could cause the viewer to actually turn from the screen. The jarring switches from laughs to blood make for a pretty uneven story that is difficult to completely invest in.
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Banks proves to have an imaginative director's eye that defies logic but finds the laughs when she wants and the immediate "boos" when she wants. There are scenes here and there that tempted this reviewer to check out, like when the bear passed out on top of one of the drug dealers or when she actually was chasing an ambulance and leaped into it, but morbid curiosity kept me watching.
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Banks makes the most of her indie budget and her "B" movie cast, with standout performances from Margo Martindale as the park ranger, Alden Emmerich as the drug dealer and in the final film appearance before his death, Ray Liotta, to whom the film is dedicated. Fans of films like Eight Legged Freaks and Cujo will have a head start here. 3

Gideon58

04-11-23, 01:09 PM

School Ties
Long before he won the Best Actor Oscar for The Whale, Brendan Fraser proved to have some serious acting chops with his performance in a 1992 drama called School Ties, an emotionally charged drama about bigotry that had this reviewer riveted and talking back to the screen.
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The year is 1959 where we find Fraser playing David Green, a high school quarterback from a working class family who gets the opportunity to transfer to a fancy New England prep school for his senior year. David finds initial excitement at the school becoming the hero of the football team, making lots of friends and pursuing a new romance, but is seriously conflicted by the fact that he has to hide the fact that he's Jewish.
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The screenplay by Dick Wolf and Daryl Poniscan is edgy and unpleasant and would not play well in the present, but because the film is set during the 1950's, everything that happens here is believable, though we're more accustomed to seeing bigotry like this against blacks. The story errs in revealing David's religion at the beginning of the film. There's a scene after David arrives at school where David is observed taking off his shirt, revealing a chain around his neck with a Star of David hanging from it. This would have been a much stronger reveal of who David was, but its power is diluted because we already know. It should also be mentioned that this script made the word "Jew" just as offensive as the "N" word.
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It's very easy to forget the bigotry that has occurred over the years for Jews but this film brings it disturbingly and unashamedly to the forefront. The story also manages an effective subplot regarding the pressure that students are under to succeed. Some to attempting suicide or as the final act of the film reveals a student has cheated on an exam, leading to several squirm-worthy scenes that made my blood boil, but never made me want to check out.
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Director Robert Mandel has mounted this story on an inviting canvas and gets top-notch performances from his cast of once and future stars. Fraser is crisp and sensitive as David, offering a performance that completely endears us to the character. Matt Damon is equally impressive as the snotty quarterback David replaced and becomes the eventual thorn in his side. Other familiar faces pop up along the way including Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell, Ed Lauter, Peter Donat, Cole Hauser, Anthony Rapp, Amy Locane, Randall Batinkoff, and Zeljko Ivanek. It's an occasionally ugly story, but there's nothing here not steeped in realism. 4

Gideon58

04-13-23, 06:41 PM

Firestarter (2022)
Pretty sure the world would have continued to rotate without 2022's Firestarter, a confusing and melodramatic remake of the 1984 thriller based on a novel by Stephen King that featured a six year old Drew Barrymore. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who never read the novel or saw the 1984 film.
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This is the story of a little girl named Charley who seems to be very confused about a power that she has to set things on fire with her mind and how she is supposed to use it. She attempts to find answers from her parents, who have powers of their own, but their primary concern is protecting Charley by keeping her powers a secret, but there is only so much protection that they can provide as eventually Charley must use her powers to save herself and her father.
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Even though King co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Teems, who wrote Halloween Kills, I found myself very confused about exactly what was going on here. Some questions might have been clarified in King's novel, but what I saw here was a story about a little girl who had magical powers that she was just as confused about as the viewer is. Charley spends the majority of the story waffling between being terrified of this power and wanting to be rid of it, but willing to use it in the name of self-preservation or revenge, the same way Carrie White used telekinesis. She understands the danger and understands why her parents are so protective of her and why they have to live their lives on the run, but her constant conflict about her abilities got pretty tiresome at around the halfway point. Then we learn that there is some mystery organization who knows about Charley and want to capture her because we learn from some crazy in a mental hospital that she has the ability to cause a nuclear explosion.
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The film is also very confusing about her parents' so-called powers as well. Her mother is very uncomfortable with her powers even though it's never made clear exactly what they are. All we know about Dad's powers is that when he cracks his neck his eyes bleed and whatever he wants to happen happens. And even though we see him overpower an innocent old man, he is completely helpless when some sort of assassin comes after him and Charley. There was a scene early on at Charley's school where she goes into the bathroom and causes an explosion in one of the stalls but comes out unscathed. A scene where she forces a trio of bullies to give up a bike and a sandwich that reminded me of Arnold's first scene in The Terminator seemed unintentionally funny.
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The film features some decent special effects and there is some imaginative camerawork, but director Keith Thomas' direction is too melodramatic and spoon-feeds us a story that just doesn't answer the questions it poses. The performances can best be described as overripe though Zac Efron maintains his dignity as the dad. There were a couple of effective immediate "boos" here and there, but this was a very long hour and thirty-four minutes. 2

Gideon58

04-15-23, 02:10 PM

The Pumpkin Eater
Despite small holes in the screenplay 1964's The Pumpkin Eater is a crisp and emotionally charged romantic melodrama focusing on a severely broken marriage whose minor flaws in the screenplay fall to the wayside thanks to meticulous direction and brilliant performances from the leads.
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Anne Bancroft stars as Jo, a vivacious mother of five, seemingly content in her second marriage, who is introduced to a seemingly charming screenwriter named Jake (Peter Finch) by her husband and in the very next scene, we learn that Jo has left her second husband to marry Jake. It's not long before Jake is revealed to be less than ideal husband material, whose behavior sends Jo to the brink of insanity.
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The intricately crafted screenplay by Harold Pinter and Penelope Mortimer is mounted in the fashion of a lot of contemporary films, as the story is told out of sequence and leaps back and forth in time, requiring complete attention from the viewer. Initial frustration is established when we see Jo and Jake meeting for the first time and everything that led to her leaving her second husband and romance with Jake leading to their marriage is abruptly skipped. It does become irrelevant though as we learn that Jake's wandering eye and his discomfort with becoming an instant stepfather are among the contributing factors to his mental and emotional abuse of Jo, which sends the woman into a very deliberate descent into madness. The film even establishes in the opening minutes, without a word of dialogue, that Jo has been released from a mental hospital and is experiencing ambivalence about doing so.
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Director Jack Clayton (The Innocents) never shies away from this adult and, at times. shocking look at the destruction of a marriage and the mental shredding of a woman that paints certain aspects of the story in a very basic black. The Jake character shows no accountability or remorse for the way he treats Jo and we want to scream as watch Jo sit back and take it up to a point. There are scenes of unexpected power here that don't start out that way. One scene that initially seems like filler, stopped this reviewer cold when Jo is confronted in a beauty parlor by a stranger whose life seems to mirror her own. The violent confrontation between Jo and Jake after a betrayal she can longer sit back and accept is frighteningly unapologetic. The ending of the story is also intriguing as it offers possible hope for Jo and Jake, but doesn't guarantee it
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The film is shot in gorgeous black and white, featuring impressive editing and a lovely music score. Anne Bancroft is nothing short of breathtaking as Jo, a performance so powerfully heartbreaking that it earned Bancroft an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (she lost to Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins), the only nomination the film received. Finch, who 12 years later would win the Academy's first posthumous acting Oscar for Network, is Oscar-worthy as the slimy Jake. Mention should also be made of James Mason as an unwilling participant in the destruction of this marriage and an early appearance from future Oscar winner Maggie Smith as a houseguest of Jo and Jake. An uncomfortable and often squirm-worthy drama anchored by bold direction and stunning performances. 4

Gideon58

04-15-23, 09:52 PM

Up the Sandbox
1972's Up the Sandbox is a pretentious and loopy black comedy that starts off as some sort of feminist manifesto rooted in Women's Lib but morphs into a confusing mish mash of domestic melodrama and bizarre fantasy sequences that make for unintentional laughs, occasional boredom, and predictable confusion.
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The film stars Barbra Streisand as Margaret Reynolds, the wife of a writer who is the mother of two children and at the beginning of the film, learns that she is expecting a third. Shortly after learning this news, she learns that her husband is having an affair with a colleague, which sends Margaret into her own personal retreat into an unfathomable world of fantasies that are supposed to provide an escape for Margaret from her humdrum existence.
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This film was one of the first productions of a motion picture production company called First Artists that was formed in 1969 by Streisand, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Sidney Poitier, and Dustin Hoffman in an attempt to turn the world of moviemaking on its ear. Unfortunately, the company closed its doors in 1980 and I have a feeling that a lot of problems with the company had to do with backing films like this one.
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Streisand was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet at the time. She had a monster hit the same year with the Peter Bogdanovich classic What's Up, Doc?, but Barbra hated every minute of making that movie and was anxious to spread her wings as a filmmaker and not just as a musical comedy actress.
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I've written a lot of reviews where I've described the central female character as "screaming on the inside" and this is definitely one of those characters. Her unhappiness with her life is evident from jump, but these supposed fantasies that are supposed to provide escape for her just seem to provide more unhappiness and danger for her. I've always thought that fantasies were a concept based around making a person happier than they are and the fantasies that Margaret has in this film not only put her in danger but she seems just as confused about them as we are. A bizarre encounter with Fidel Castro, her pregnancy magically blowing up at a cocktail party, and an encounter with an African tribe filled with half naked women are among the nutty journeys Margaret takes. Our confusion about why Margaret doesn't tell anyone about her pregnancy at the beginning of the film is addressed during the final reel in one of the most bizarre finales to a movie I have ever seen.
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Streisand's performance can best be described as uneven, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I don't think even she understood what's going on here. David Selby is terrific as her husband as is Arielle Heller as her really annoying mother, but this movie is a hot mess. Even die hard Streisand fans will have a hard time wading through this one. 2

Gideon58

04-20-23, 06:51 PM

Luckiest Girl Alive
Despite some stylish direction and strong performances, 2022's Luckiest Girl Alive is a talky and slightly confusing psychological drama with feminist leanings centered around a woman who is allowing her past to impede her present and future.
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Mila Kunis stars as Ani Fanelli, an upwardly mobile New Yorker who is living the dream. She is a writer for a women's magazine who is in the running for a job with the New York Times and is engaged to marry the wealthy man of her dreams. Ani's world begins to unravel though when she is approached by a documentary filmmaker who wants to make a movie where she will talk about being one of the survivors of a shooting at the fancy prep school she attended as a teenager. Dean, another survivor of the shooting who is now confined to a wheelchair, has appeared in a film and written a book about his experience that has him living high off the hog. A connection between Ani and Dean revolving around an even uglier crime than the shooting reveals itself and Ani feels she can't move on with her life until she gets some closure with Dean.
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According to the IMDB, Reese Witherspoon's production company purchased the film rights to the novel by Jessica Knoll upon which this film was released before it even hit the bookstores. This implies there is probably some basis in fact in this story, which has a very personal, very intimate feel to it. It first comes through in Ani's onscreen narration of the events, that doesn't seem to be so concerned with documenting the events of what happened but more about how she feels about them.
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It was interesting watching the way this film progressed because Ani seems to have everything a girl could want at the beginning of the film and, as the story progresses, finds everything slipping away from her. It's extremely disturbing watching the way the events that occur quietly eat away at her life especially with her sensitive and caring fiancee Luke, who knows some of what happened but feels Ani has already worked through it because that's what Ani wants him to believe.
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Director Mike Barker (The Handmaid's Tale) has put a lot of care into the presentation of the story. I liked that he had one actress playing present day Ani and another playing teen Ani and his subtle transitions from the present to the past. Unfortunately, the events comprising Ani's troubled past are presented in such a jumbled manner that it's hard for the viewer to track what's going on. Ani's friends and enemies in the story, even ones who are related to her, are hard to track. Allegiances change at the drop of the hat, not an uncommon thing with teenagers, but it made it very difficult to keep track of what happened to Ani and who was on her side.
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Kunis does deliver the strongest performance of her career in the starring role and I loved Chiara Aurelia as the teenage Ani as well. Finn Wittrock, who was so good as Mickey Deans in the Judy Garland biopic Judy, is an effective blend of strength and sensitivity as Luke and a very gracefully aging Jennifer Beals, 40 years after Flashdance is a lot of fun as Ani's boss as was Connie Britton as Ani's self-absorbed mother, I just wish the story had been a little easier to follow. 3

Gideon58

04-21-23, 01:54 PM

The Four Poster
The institution of marriage is examined in 1952's The Four Poster an enchanting and effervescent look at a fifty-year marriage starting at the turn of the century that charmed this reviewer thanks to some stylish direction and the splendid performances from the leads, who are the only actors who appear on the screen.
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The film opens at the turn of the century on the wedding night of John Edwards and his nervous young bride, Abby and provides selected scenes from this marriage in the form of vignettes that are linked through animated segments that sometimes fill in what we need to know that happens between the scenes and sometimes just sets the mood for us.
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This the film version of a play that opened on Broadway on October 24, 1951 and ran for over 600 performances with real life acting legends Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in the roles. For the screen version, the roles of John and Abby were awarded to Rex Harrison and his real life spouse at the time, Lilli Palmer, whose love for each other comes through in every frame of this film and what makes this alternately witty and heartbreaking look at a marriage so richly entertaining.
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Watching the progression of this relationship from the wedding night where Abby looks terrified of the four poster bed and makes John turn around every time she removes an article of clothing, through John's alleged infidelity, the death of their son and the marriage of their daughter, to the bittersweet finale with just the right touch of fantasy, we are fascinated by this look at a romance and relationship that matures through the years while weathering multiple storms.
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Since it was the title of the film, I was a little surprised that the bed became less important as the film progressed, but I was impressed that John and Abby were the only characters who appeared onscreen. There might be a tendency not to pay attention to the linking animated sequences but that would be a mistake. There is also a scene where Abby is going through her son's old toys that has a real Hitchcock feel to it, that we don't see coming at all.
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Director Irvin Reis (The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer) lends a sensitive and imaginative directorial hand to the proceedings. Harrison and Palmer work beautifully together, crafting one of the most enchanting onscreen marriages I have ever seen. Fourteen years later, this story was turned into a Broadway musical called I Do I Do with Robert Preston and Mary Martin. 4

Gideon58

04-22-23, 05:49 PM

The Honeymoon
You Me and Dupree meets Honeymoon in Vegas in 2022's The Honeymoon, a dreadfully unfunny comedy that gets dumber and dumber as it progresses, resulting in the longest one hour and thirty five minutes of my life.
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Adam and Sarah have just gotten married, much to the dismay of Adam's best man and childhood BFF, Bav. Bav is so upset by his buddy's marriage that he has Adam thinking that he's suicidal and to keep him from doing harm to himself, Adam actually invites Bav to join him and Sarah on their honeymoon in Venice. The situation is barely tolerable for Adam and Sarah until Bav gets them up to their necks in trouble with a charming art dealer/drug dealer named Giorgio.
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This alleged comedy is another hot mess from director and screenwriter Dean Craig, who was also the creative force behind a ridiculous comedy from earlier in the year called The Estate. If the truth be told, the initial premise of this film is kind of funny. even if it is virtually impossible to accept that anyone would actually invite their best friend to join them on their honeymoon. This plot concept does provide some initial laughs and had potential for more, but once Adam, Sarah, and Bav become involved with the evil Giorgio, the film begins to fall apart.
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There is a clever directorial touch here and there. I liked the way Craig decided to document Adam and Bav's relationship through still photographs during the opening credits, like the opening credits of The Break Up, in order to make the audience understand why Adam would actually invite this guy to share his honeymoon. It's not just the fact that Adam would invite Bav on his honeymoon, but that Bav would actually accept the invitation. There's a moment where the three of them are on a gondola and Adam has his arm around Sarah and Bav takes Adam's other arm and places it around himself. That was the beginning of the end for me. Adam and Bav's mission to deliver some cocaine while Sarah was Giorgio's hostage was beyond silly, and if the truth be told, there's no way Adam. Bav, and Sarah should have come out of this thing alive.
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For a British independent feature, this film had a pretty big budget, evidenced in actual Venice locations, but pretty scenery doesn't do much to help us accept a really dumb story. Pico Alexander shows some real leading man potential as Adam and Maria Bakalova, who was nominated for an Oscar for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, works very hard to make us like Sarah, but Asim Choudry is the real scene stealer as Bav, though scene stealing from this silly comedy is no major accomplishment. 2

Gideon58

04-22-23, 09:54 PM

The Notorious Landlady
The stars and directors of the classic Bell Book and Candle reunited a few years later for The Notorious Landlady, an uneven mixture of black comedy and murder mystery whose over complicated screenplay makes the movie a very long and labored journey.
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The 1962 film stars Jack Lemmon as Bill Gridley, a junior American diplomat who is beginning a new position in London. He persuades a beautiful young woman named Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) to rent him the apartment above hers. He is immediately attracted to her and takes her out to dinner that night. The next day when he reports to work, Bill learns from his boss, Franklyn Armbruster (Fred Astaire) that he was followed on his date last night because Mrs. Hardwicke has been accused of murdering her husband and Scotland Yard wants Bill's assistance in helping them prove it.
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The screenplay by Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart, based on a novel by Margery Sharp, does an efficient job of establishing the premise, but then bombards the viewer with one red herring after another making the story very difficult to stay invested in and making the movie a lot longer than it needs to be. It's clear from the moment we meet her that Carly has secrets but we're not sure if one of them is the fact that she murdered her husband. Then we have the Armbruster character, whose agenda changes from scene to scene, not to mention surprises witness and even a couple of extra corpses work themselves into a story that about two thirds of the way becomes a little exhausting.
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Director Richard Quine offers a breeziness and an unbridled nervous energy to the proceedings that makes the audience wonder if they should be giggling or shaking in their boots. Believe it or not, as I watched this, the same thing flashed through my mind that did when I was watching Bell Book and Candle: Hitchcock should have directed this This loopy story is the kind that Hitchcock could deliver in his sleep.
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Lemmon works very hard in a role that is part Cary Grant and part Jerry Lewis, but Kim Novak never really convinces as the merry murderess. I did enjoy Astaire make the most of a complex character who changes sides throughout the story. It's a labored cinematic journey, but I think Hitchcock could have made it a lot less so. In addition to her role as Carly, Novak also designed her own costumes. 3

Gideon58

04-25-23, 06:17 PM

Jesus Revolution
2023's Jesus Revolution is a well-intentioned docudrama about the birth of an important religious movement that features some strong performances, but a screenplay that definitely could have used some tightening and too many lapses into melodrama weigh it down a bit.
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The story opens in 1968 California, where events that happened in San Francisco and Haight Ashbury became the genesis for a religious movement among hippies who weren't finding the spiritual fulfillment they thought they could find in drugs and bucking the establishment and seek what they are looking for through a search for spirituality/
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The story is told through the eyes of a handful of characters, who it turns out were mostly based on real people. Greg Laurie is a military school dropout who had a troubled childhood and may have found his answer in Christ. Chuck Smith is a pastor whose church is on life support until he embraces the hippies who invade his church, via his daughter, and turn his church into a Billy Graham-type empire. Lonnie Frisbee is an idealistic hippie and spiritual leader who bonds with Chuck until he begins to believe his own press. Cathe is a hippie in training who is rudely awakened by her sister's overdosing, who may have found what she's looking for in this religious movement and in Greg.
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The real Greg Laurie was one of the screenwriters, which would explain the rambling quality to the story and a lack of focus on the story at hand. The story spends way too much time focusing on Greg's troubled relationship with his trampy, alcoholic mother and the father who abandoned them as a child. I could see one flashback, but continually going back to Greg's past with his mother kept bringing this film to a halt. The scene where he literally drags his mom out of a bar and then asks her when his dad is coming home bordered on laughable. The scene where Greg first asks Cathe for a date didn't work because it began with Greg warning Cathe to never get in the way of him and his God...seriously?
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The slow burn bonding between Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee's hippie friends was a joy to watch though. Loved when we first glimpse Chuck watching the hippies on TV and admitting to not understanding them, but wanting to help them and he actually does. There's an amazing scene where see a bunch of barefoot hippies in line to attend Chuck's church and Chuck is revealed to be washing the congregant's feet before they enter the church. This scene left a definite lump in the throat.
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Maybe budget restrictions had something to do with it, but it would have been nice to have a few more A-listers in the cast. Though Joel Courtney works very hard to make his character Greg work, throughout the film I kept picturing Timothee Chalamet in this role. Kelsey Grammer is beautifully understated as Rev. Chuck, but the real scene stealer here was Jonathan Roumie as the charismatic Lonnie Frisbee. A true story that gets a little soapy in spots, but a couple of important messages do get through. 3.5

Gideon58

04-25-23, 09:45 PM

Sorrowful Jones
Bob Hope's gift with one-liners is center stage for a funny and warm comedy from 1949 called Sorrowful Jones, the second of four versions of this story that first came to the screen in 1934.
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Hope plays the title character, a slick-talking bookie and notorious tightwad who latest scheme that involves doping a horse, gets endlessly complicated when a poor schlub who doesn't have the money to make a sure bet, leaves his young daughter with Sorrowful as collateral. Unfortunately, dad disappears and Sorrowful now has to play surrogate father, with help from his ex-girlfriend, a nightclub singer named Gladys.
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Based on characters created by Damon Runyan (Guys & Dolls), the screenplay seems tailored to fit the talents Hope, since one of the screenwriters is Melville Shavelson, who also wrote the screenplay for one f Hope's best films, The Seven Little Foys. It seems that the little girl is supposed to be the focus of the story but with Hope on board for the project, I'm sure changes were made to make Hope happy. This is evidenced in the other three versions of the this story being named after the little girl but this version is named after the Sorrowful character.
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The bonding that eventually happens between Sorrowful and the little girl is on the predictable side, but it's still a lot of fun. Loved the scene where the little girl has to spend the night at Sorrowful's place and she makes herself at home in bed. Lucille Ball is a whole lot of funas Gladys, bringing a lot more to the role than is in the screenplay. Ball imbues Gladys with an independent spirit that makes it clear that this is a woman who is not owned by any man. Ball's singing is dubbed by Annette Warren, who two years later, would sing for Ava Gardner in the 1951 version of Show Boat.nd
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As expected, Hope and Ball are a joy in their roles and little Mary Jane Saunders is adorable as little Martha Jane. This story first came to the screen in 1934 with Adolph Menjou as Sorrowful and Shirley Temple as the little girl. It was reincarnated as 40 Pounds of Trouble in 1962 with Tony Curtis as Sorrowful nd went back to its original title Little Miss Marker in 1980 with Walter Matthau as Sorrowful, but I've always heard that this film is the strongest of the four films and I found no reason to refute that. 3.5

Gideon58

04-27-23, 07:12 PM

The Son (2022)
From the folks who brought us the uniquely crafted The Father comes The Son, a turgid, overheated, and snore-inducing melodrama about a broken family and the teenager who thinks he has the power to fix it.
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This 2022 potboiler stars Hugh Jackman as Peter, a high-powered attorney who has just had a baby with his girlfriend, Beth (Vanessa Kirby) whose new life gets thrown into a tailspin when he learns from his ex-wife, Kate (Oscar winner Laura Dern) that his teenage son, Nicholas, has been ditching school for the last month. Peter is concerned but can't get any straight answers from Nicholas, who is under the impression that the solution to his problems is to move in with Peter, Beth, and his new baby brother.
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My mind was blown when I learned that Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, who won an Original Screenplay Oscar for The Father were the culprits behind this dull and predictable melodrama that actually found this reviewer trying to keep his eyes open in order to invest in this snail-paced drama, rich with scenes we've seen in a million other movies and done much better than they are here.
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The most annoying part of this story is this kid, Nicholas, who is seriously grating on the nerves about 20 minutes into the movie. The guy has never accepted his parents; divorce and has taken it upon himself to remedy that. He refuses to talk to his mother at all and threatens to talk to his father, before retreating into a private world that implies suicidal tendencies. One particularly aggravating scene finds Nicholas interrupting Peter and Beth when they are fooling around on the sofa and pretending to be apologetic about it. The story confuses because it initially appears to be about the adults in the story, but when the focus turns out to be about the whiny Nicholas, interest definitely begins to wane.
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Zeller's direction is heavy-handed and self-indulgent, making the film a lot longer than it needs to be. Jackman, Kirby, and Dern make the most of thankless, underwritten roles and the lack of sympathy for Nicholas definitely affects Zen McGrath's appeal in the role. Mention should be made of a glorious cameo by Anthony Hopkins as Jackman's father that was the best scene in the whole film but had close to nothing to do with it. Considering the talent behind the camera, this was a huge disappointment. 2

Gideon58

04-28-23, 07:57 PM

About Last Night (1986)
The concept of the one night stand as a conduit to actual romance seems to be the underlying theme to an overlong and superficial romantic comedy called About Last Night whose primary appeal lies in the sex appeal of the stars.
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It's 1986 contemporary Chicago where Danny (Rob Lowe) meets Debbie (Demi Moore) at a baseball game and by the time the day is over, they are in bed together. It's not long before the pair try to build a relationship based on the physical and are actually shocked when they realize it's not working. It doesn't help that their BFF's Bernie and Joan (Jim Belushi, Elizabeth Perkins) are doing everything in their power to break them up.
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If the truth be told, watching this movie was like stepping into a time capsule. Do you remember a time when Rob Lowe and Demi Moore were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood? Well, there was a time and this film brought it all back for me. This was a time when Lowe and Moore were considered "graduates" of "The Brat Pack" and had just appeared together in St. Elmo's Fire and were pretty much able to write their own ticket in Hollywood. And this allegedly contemporary battle of the sexes seemed to be a perfect vehicle for them.
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This vehicle was actually adapted from a play by David Mamet and effectively translated to the screen so it doesn't look like a play onscreen, but the storyline is so predictable the viewer can practically recite the lines with the actors. The screenplay takes every relationship/romance cliche you can think of and throws it up on the screen to see what sticks. What the story boils down to is the fact that Debbie is falling in love with Danny but Danny just isn't there yet. There was one very smart piece of writing that surprised me though...after the first time Debbie says I love you to Danny, we see Bernie ask Danny who said it first and Danny lies to him and says he did. The only real surprise in the whole story.
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Director Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall) attempts to provide some substance to the relationship by providing a lot of montage scenes with Lowe and Moore looking deep in thought but there isn't a clue as to exactly what their thinking on their faces, so all these scenes do is pad the running time.
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Hardcore fans of Lowe and Moore will love this because this film was definitely conceived on the concept that Lowe and Moore were the two sexiest people on the plant...Lowe spends about two thirds of the film half-naked. Belishi and Perkins provide some substance in their supporting roles, but this film is just pretty people with pretty problems. The film was remade in 2014 with Michael Ealy, Joy Bryant, Kevin Hart, and Regina Hall in the leads. 3

Gideon58

04-29-23, 05:59 PM

The Outfit (2022)
2022's The Outfit is a clever and claustrophobic crime drama, with just a dash of character study, that keeps the viewer on their toes, thanks to a smart screenplay that doesn't play all of its cards at once, but consistently intrigues with some jarring false starts and a rare dose of multiple endings that actually works.
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It's 1956 Chicago where we meet Leonard (Oscar winner Mark Rylance), a transplanted British tailor whose shop is some sort of front for mob activity, but said activity reaches a fever pitch when a very valuable audio tape and a murdered mob prince put Leonard in serious danger for the first time during his apparent lengthy association with these people.
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Director and co-screenwriter Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for writing The Imitation Game, scores with an intricate story that initially appears to have a lot of holes in it, but as the story progresses, we realize this is no accident. We're given no clues as to how the relationship between this tailor and these wiseguys came about...are they paying him for the use of his shop? Is he indebted to them in some way? We're never really told how this relationship came about but it does becomes irrelevant as the backstory isn't really important. What is established immediately is that the wiseguys trust this tailor to keep their secrets. I was also impressed by the narration where Leonard talks about the art of making a suit and how said narration connects to the events that transpire.
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Loved this central character so beautifully realized by Moore and the actor portraying him. With the aid of the narration and William Goldenberg's editing the skill and passion for what this man does. It becomes apparent pretty quickly that Leonard is the smartest character in the movie. We have to admire and respect any movie character who witnesses more than one murder in the story and walks away from it. The character is also at the root of the aforementioned multiple endings. Multiple endings are usually annoying and just pad running time, but here they totally work.
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Moore's direction is crisp and intense, bring more suspense than gore to a story of this ilk. Mark Rylance, another actor I've become convinced is incapable of giving a bad performance, is beautifully understated here playing a character who stays on the edge of destruction but never breaks a sweat. He gets solid support from Simon Russell Beale as Roy, Dylan O'Brien as Richie, and especially Johnny Flynn as Francis. If you're looking for a mob drama with mad style, belly up and enjoy. 4

Gideon58

04-29-23, 09:48 PM

Cinderella Liberty (1973)
The film has problems in terms of plotting and characterization, but 1973's Cinderella Liberty does consistently engage the viewer thanks to the steamy chemistry between the stars.
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James Caan, fresh off his Oscar-nominated performance in The Godfather, stars a s John Baggs Jr., a sailor about to begin weekend liberty in Seattle who learns because of medical issues and lost records, must remain in Seattle on extended leave and cannot return to his ship. One night in a bar, Baggs meets a fiery prostitute named Maggie (Marsha Mason), who lives in a dingy little apartment with an empty refrigerator and her angry 11 year old Mulatto son, who sleeps with a switchblade.
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Screenwriter Darryl Poniscan (The Last Detail, School Ties) has constructed one of those classic lover stories centered on two people who have no business being together, eventually find romantic common ground, and then the rest of the movie is spent tearing them apart. As much as we love Baggs and Maggie together, there is also an almost immediate sense that the relationship is doomed.
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There are some characterization issues that plagued me throughout. I never bought the surrogate father thing that happens between Baggs and Maggie's son because his feelings about Baggs changed from scene to scene with no feasible explanation. I also didn't like the way the Navy kept getting in the way of what was happening between Baggs and Maggie.
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What I did love about this movie was the white hot chemistry between James Caan and Marsha Mason in the starring roles. Mason, in particular lights up the screen, in only her second feature film appearance, though it did sound a little phony every time the character used the word "ain't." Mason was the talk of Hollywood after this performance but Caan is no less effective as Baggs, offering one of his most sensitive performances.
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Mark Rydell's direction has a real gritty quality to it and even though Paul Williams saccharine music score sounded like what he composed for The Muppet Movie, it wasn't too distracting. And if you don't blink, buffs will notice Burt Young, Bruno Kirby Jr, Eli Wallach, and Dabney Coleman in supporting roles, but this is Caan and Mason's show, who were reunited on screen six years later to lesser effect in Neil Simon's Chapter Two, but they make this cinematic ride quite smooth. 3.5

Gideon58

05-02-23, 01:12 PM

Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me
After years of working in films and television, Marlon Wayans returns to the stand-up mike in a 2023 concert called Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me, a comedy set that establishes an unprecedented premise for a special like this, unfortunately, the premise eventually runs out of gas.
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Broadcast on HBOMAX live from Atlantic GA, Wayans does something that I have never seen in a comedy special before. Wayans begins the show talking about his cosmic connection with Chris Rock, which began when Marlon lost a role in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka to Rock, which leads Marlon to talk about the Oscar night where Rock got slapped by Will Smith and we're actually a little thrown that Wayans builds his entire concert around the events of that night. It should also be mentioned that Wayans' material features a dead on impression of Chris Rock, who I've never heard anyone do an impression of before.
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Wayans does provide some context for the feelings expressed here and we understand his resentment of Rock and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, but there's a point about halfway through the concert where it stops being funny and starts being offensive and we just want Wayans to talk about something else, anything else. There's a funny bit about the concept of the gay best friend that garners major laughs and we think Wayans is finally going somewhere else with this, but eventually all roads lead back to Chris, Will, and Jada and for this reviewer, it became tiresome.
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Have to admit there were a couple of very effective moments where Wayans looks at that night through other eyes than his own. His impression of stars talking about the event at the post Oscars parties and his impression of white folks and black folks watching what happened on TV were hysterically funny and I wish a little more of the concert had been done from a more objective place, but Wayans lets this get a little personal providing the evening with a little more venom than genuine humor. There are laughs here but they definitely come and go. 3.5

Gideon58

05-03-23, 06:30 PM

The Man Called Flintstone
Back in the 60's, ABC and Hanna Barbera Productions made history with the first prime time animated series called The Flintstones which ran for six seasons. During the final season, it was decided to bring the show to the big screen in a feature length animated adventure called The Man Called Flintstone.
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The year was 1966 and the James Bond craze was in high gear so it was decided that this film should be a Bond spoof. As the film opens, we are introduced to a secret agent named Rock Slag, who is a dead ringer for Fred Flintstone, who is being chased by a pair of boobs named Ali and Bobo. During the chase, Slag is seriously injured and appears to be incapable of completing his mission of stopping a missile from being launched by a villain known as the Green Goose. Slag's boss, Chief Boulder, accidentally runs into Fred, who is preparing for a camping trip with BFF Barney Rubble, their wives, Wilma and Betty, and their children, Pebbles and Bamm Bamm. Boulder offers Fred an all-expenses paid trip to Paris for him and his family if he will complete Slag's mission for him.
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It should be noted that if you've been living under a rock for the last 60 years and have no idea who the Flintstones are, you should give this film a hard pass. The screenplay assumes that the viewer is already acquainted with the Flintstones and the Rubbles and offers nothing in terms of backstory. That said, we are offered a typical Fred and Barney adventure where our two best friends have gotten themselves in a situation well above their paygrade and don't really have a clue how to get out of it.
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Like the television series, the movie features all the stone age technology that made the series so funny, including elevators operated by dinosaurs and cameras and tape recorders that are actually operated by birds. These are the primary elements that made the TV show so funny, which were practically ignored when the 1994 live action version of the show was produced in 1994. In keeping with the Bond theme, the Rock Slag character is known by every glamorous female criminal in the world, who all seem to have some kind of past with Slag and can't tell the difference between him and Fred.
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In addition to all the female scenery, the Bond tradition also comes alive in some clever chase scenes, especially the one that opens the film with Slag being pursued and one through an abandoned amusement park during the final act. The film does feature a handful of lame songs that really do nothing but slow the plot and pad running time. Even toddlers Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are given their own musical number.
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Alan Reed and Mel Blanc still provide the voices of Fred and Barney as they did in the series. Henry Corden, who provided Fred's singing voice, would take over voicing the character after Reed's death. Slag's boss, Chief Boulder, is voiced by Harvey Korman,who also provided the voice of the Great Gazoo on the series. There are laughs here and there, but in this age of CGI entertainment, this is pretty tame stuff. 3

Gideon58

05-04-23, 02:35 PM

Pretty Baby Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields is the subject of a 2023 documentary called Pretty Baby Brooke Shields that not only provided a lot of information I didn't know about the actress' life, but found this reviewer looking at the actress in an entirely different light.
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Shields has had one of Hollywood's most unique careers, thanks to films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, that not only made her an instant superstar, but also carved an image for her as a sexual creature from which it was nearly impossible for her to escape from for decades. Much has been written about the beginning of her career and how so much of it was manipulated by her mother, Teri, who was often accused of exploiting her daughter for her own selfish purposes. There weren't a lot of mothers out there in the 70's who were allowing their 11 year old daughters to appear nude on the silver screen, but apparently Teri Shields didn't have a problem with it and this is what I expected this documentary to be about, but it wasn't.
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Actually, the documentary begins long after the initial stardom that Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon brought Brooke. It wasn't long before Brooke's onscreen image brought her career to a standstill, at which time she decided to go to college. Her onscreen image had become so much a part of her persona that people came to assume that this was who she was, which actually resulted in a young Brooke being sexually assaulted by a virtual stranger, an experience that she shares about with surprising frankness.
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One thing I expected here and did not get was a lot of whining about her mother and the way she was exploited as a child by her. This documentary reveals that the actress holds no ill will regarding her mother and the way she treated her. Shields' eyes actually begin to well up as she talks about her mother's descent into dementia and her eventual death.
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Her romantic life is documented here, as well, which, unknown to me, actually started with former TV Superman Dean Cain, followed by her stormy marriage to tennis superstar Andre Agassi and her current husband Chris Henchy. She also talks about her brief and overhyped relationship with Michael Jackson. Her private battle with post partum depression and her feud with Tom Cruise over same are also touched upon. My favorite part of the film was watching Brooke having a meal with her teenage daughters and discussing why they haven't seen Pretty Baby or The Blue Lagoon
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Commentary is provided by Drew Barrymore, Laura Linney, Brooke's husband Chris, Alexandra Wentworth, Lionel Richie, Judd Nelson, who co-starred on Suddenly Susan with Brooke and writer Jean Kilbourne. An intimate and eye opening look at one of Hollywood's most misunderstood icons. 4

Gideon58

05-05-23, 06:55 PM

Tall Story
1960's Tall Story is a sweet-natured, if slightly dated, comedy that has a proven commodity in the director's chair and provides sporadic laughs but is mostly remembered because it features the film debut of future movie icon Jane Fonda.
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Fonda plays June Ryder, a pretty young college student who has just transferred to a new college for a very specific purpose: She wants to marry Ray Blent (Anthony Perkins), a sensitive and intelligent basketball star who does eventually succumb to June's charms, but this is just the beginning of Ray's problems, which includes an important basketball game against a Russian team and the bribe he has been offered to throw the game.
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The screenplay by Julius J Epstein (Casablanca) is actually based on a play by Howard Lindsey and Russell Crouse, which is impressively opened up for the screen, even it's a little more complex than it really needs to be. The romance between June and Roy would have been enough story to engage the audience by itself, especially since this is a rare case of classic romantic comedy where the female character is doing the chasing. June is not the least bit subtle in her pursuit of Ray and his initial cluelessness about it is a little hard to swallow and just as Ray catches on, his life as a basketball star begins to take priority, bringing additional layers to a traditional romantic comedy.
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Veteran director Joshua Logan (Picnic), Mister Roberts) displays a real gift here for light comedy through his sometimes not-so-subtle way of getting actors to serve the story. He does a particularly impressive job with Fonda, who works the sex kitten angle in her character to maximum effect. Watch Fonda in that scene on the sofa when she and Perkins are babysitting. Fonda's presentation of teenage lust is crystal clear and this is clearly a collaborative effort between the novice actress and the director. And even though this movie actually came out the same year that Anthony Perkins made cinema history playing Norman Bates in Psycho, his performance here is kind of difficult to latch onto because Perkins plays the role a little too twitchy and a little too straight-faced, as if someone forgot to tell Perkins that the movie was a comedy. Fonda is so good though we're able to forgive the twitchy Perkins.
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There is solid support by the brilliant Ray Walston as an eccentric college professor, Anne Jackson as his wife, and Murray Hamilton as a maniacal basketball coach. There's also an early film appearance by Tom Laughlin, who would find screen immortality years later as Billy Jack. And even though I couldn't spot him, supposedly Robert Redford appears in the film as a basketball player. A pleasant, if unremarkable comedy, made watchable thanks to Logan and Fonda, very impressive in her film debut. 3.5

Gideon58

05-06-23, 09:14 PM

Maybe I Do
The performances by a quartet of Hollywood veterans make a 2023 family comedy called Maybe I Do worth a look.
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Michelle (Emma Roberts) and her boyfriend, Allen (Luke Bracey) have just had a big fight because Michelle wants to get married and Allen does not. They temporarily move out of the apartment they share and into their parents' home for support and counsel regarding what they should do next. Unbeknownst to Michelle and Allen, Michelle's father, Howard (Richard Gere) has been having an affair with Allen's mother, Monica (Susan Sarandon) for four months and the night before they all plan to have dinner together, Michelle's mom, Grace (Diane Keaton) spent the night in a hotel with Allen's dad, Sam (William H Macy), though they did not have sex.
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This film is the brainchild of Michael Jacobs, whose primary work in Hollywood has been as a television writer on shows like Boys Meet World and Charles in Charge. the film is based on a play that Jacobs wrote that he was actually allowed not only to fashion the screenplay out of his own play, but allowed to direct as well. Jacobs' inexperience in film does show here, giving us a talky and overly sophisticated theater piece that never really escapes its theater origins. There's a whole lot of talking in the opening scenes where we meet these three couples as if they are the stars of three different movies; unfortunately, this reviewer was able to get the gist of what was going on about seven minutes into the running time.
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One aspect of the story that I did find fresh and unexpected was the difference between the status of the relationships between the parents. It was rather clever having Howard and Monica having been together for four months and Howard quietly trying to end it, while Grace and Sam meet for the first time the same time we do. Of course, this leads to some hysterical moments when they all meet for dinner. Was also impressed with the civility and sophistication with which the parents handled this squirm-worthy situation, always putting the welfare of the kids above their own stupid mistakes. This was pretty much the only surprise involved in the story that plays out as expected.
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The film is handsomely mounted and the performances that Jacobs elicits from Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and William H Macy make the movie worth sitting through. This is the first time Gere and Sarandon have worked together since 2004's Shall We Dance and Gere and Keaton are reunited onscreen for the first time since 1977's Looking for Mr Goodbar. It's pleasant, but ultimately, kind of empty entertainment. 3

Gideon58

05-08-23, 08:12 PM

Yolanda and the Thief
Despite the presence of Vincente Minnelli in the director's chair and Fred Astaire in front of the camera, 1945's musical fantasy Yolanda and the Thief is definitely lower-tier MGM thanks to a silly storyline that plays its cards too quickly and a less than charismatic leading lady.
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Set in an imaginary kingdom called Patria, this is the story of Yolanda, a naive young teenager who has just graduated from a convent school and has learned that she has just inherited her family's estate, worth approximately $72,000,000. Discomfort about running a business empire motivates Yolanda to pray to a statue of the archangel Michael for help. Yolanda's prayer is accidentally overheard by a con man named Johnny Riggs and his partner, Victor. Johnny decides to befriend Yolanda, telling her that he is the angel she prayed to and tells her he will assuage her business worries if she just signs over her power of attorney to her.
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The screenplay does have an air of familiarity about it, most notably the Meredith Wilson musical The Music Man, where Harold Hill is trying to bilk an entire town of out of their money. Here, Astaire's Johnny has a single target; unfortunately, his guilt about what he is doing to this young woman is apparent about twenty minutes into the running time, taking a lot of the suspense out of the story and allowing the viewer's mind to wander. To be honest, when Johnny calls Yolanda on the phone saying he's her guardian angel and she actually believes an angel called her on the phone, I almost checked out.
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Vincente Minnelli was just off a career high at the time he made this, having just completed the smash Meet Me in St Louis and research revealed that Minnelli wanted his then wife, Judy Garland to play Yolanda. Sadly, Garland was already committed to make The Harvey Girls and was unavailable. Minnelli was forced to turn to Lucille Bremer to take on the role of Yolanda. This is one of the main problems with this film. Even though Bremer had just finished playing Garland's older sister in Meet Me in St Louis, this film revealed that, despite being a wonderful dancer, Bremer was a terrible actress and really weighed this film down.
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The score by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed is nothing to write home about either. Astaire and Bremer dance together in a lavish production number at the end of the film called "Coffee Time", but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the song was called "Coffee Time" because it really had nothing to do with coffee. I also enjoyed an intricate dream ballet during the first act called "Will You Marry Me?", the song sung by Yolanda (Bremer's singing was dubbed Trudi Ervin. The stylish choreography is by Eugene Loring.
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As expected with Minnelli in the driver's seat, the MGM gloss is even glossier than usual, featuring elaborate settings and breathtaking costumes. Astaire works very hard to be a convincing con man and his dancing is first rate as always. Shout outs as well to Mildred Natwick as Yolanda's flighty Aunt and Frank Morgan as Johnny's partner, Victor. It's watchable, but not memorable. Astaire and Minnelli would have much better luck about eight years later on The Band Wagon. 3

Gideon58

05-09-23, 03:50 PM

A Thousand and One
Precious meets Moonlight in 2023's A Thousand and One, an allegedly gritty urban drama that, despite solid performances, suffers due to a cliche-ridden screenplay and an eventual descent into melodrama that makes the movie seem a lot longer than it is.
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The setting is New York City, circa 1994, where we meet Inez, a streetwise single mom, fresh out of Rikers, who literally kidnaps her son, Terry, out of a foster care facility and is determined to start her life with her son all over again, but as Terry grows up and real life begins to interfere, including the return of a former boyfriend of Inez, things begin to methodically fall apart for this mother and son.
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Director and screenwriter A V Rockwell really deserves an "A" for effort here, as the story presented starts off quite promisingly as we watch this woman willing to do just about anything to make a new life for her son and the first third of the film focusing on Inez and her little boy was completely riveting and could have made a great movie all by itself. Sadly, we are disappointed as Inez' ex enters the picture and seems to still love her but has no interest in being a stepfather, even though this is what Terry needs more than anything as he enters his teens. The story also reveals young Terry to be a really smart kid who is given the chance to attend an advanced high school and fights the opportunity with every fiber of his being. It seems like the older the character gets, the dumber he gets. And just when we think we've had it with this, an 11th hour reveal about Inez rears its ugly head, but the sympathy boat for both characters has sailed by then.
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I do like the fact that Rockwell chose to have three different actors play Terry, the same way Barry Jenkins used three different actors to play Little in Moonlight, but it didn't make sense that as the character got older, he got dumber and lazier and completely unmotivated to do anything with his life, despite all the sacrifices we see Inez make at the beginning of the film. As ridiculous as certain elements of this story became, the film never becomes completely unrealistic. There are things that happen to Inez and Terry during the course of the story that will have relatability to some viewers, but it moves at a snail's pace and during the final act, when the story begins crapping all over Inez and Terry, we are very tempted to check out before the credits roll.
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If Rockwell had economized her screenplay and given her direction more pacing, this film didn't have to be almost two hours long and seem like four. There are some terrific performances though, especially Teyona Taylor as Inez, Josiah Cross as 17 year old Terry, and William Catlett as Inez' man, Lucky, but the film just takes too long to get where it goes. And a gold star to anyone who can explain the title. 3.5

Gideon58

05-10-23, 07:13 PM

O Brother Where Art Thou?
Once again, Joel and Ethan Cohen knock it out of the park with 2000's O Brother Where Art Thou?, a rowdy, but sweet natured black comedy that provides consistent laughs and grins throughout thanks to an extremely clever screenplay that almost goes a little too far at the climax and some knockout performances from a lot of familiar members of the Cohen rep company.
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The setting is the deep south during the 1930's where we meet Everett, Pete, and Delmar, three convicts at a prison work farm who manage to escape, who have been clued into a possible treasure that could bring them untold riches, sending them on an episodic adventure that provides unexpected comedy and drama for the trio.
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Technically, the film was produced by Ethan and directed by Joel, but they are both credited with the Oscar-nominated screenplay, which is actually credited to be inspired by Homer's The Odyssey links three people together who seem to be willing to do anything to find this treasure except betray each other. There is actually a point in the story where one of the trio gets recaptured and is returned to the work farm but eventually gets sprung by his buddies. The opening of their adventure was unpredictably fun which found the trio stopping at a recording studio in the middle of nowhere and making a record, that actually becomes a smash hit, but our boys are unable to be located in order to receive their accolades. Love the way this part of the story seems to be forgotten about initially but does eventually tie into the finale.
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Also loved the boys' encounter with Baby Face Nelson, who is portrayed here as straight up insane. An encounter with some beautiful women, who seem to be a contemporary thinking of the classic sirens who lured sailors into the sea, who have Delmar thinking Pete has been turned into a toad, was also a lot of fun. Their encounter with a phony traveling salesman, who beats and robs them was troubling because the viewer can see immediately that this guy is trouble but for some reason, our guys are completely taken in by them.
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The film is also provided a lovely background, courtesy of some lovely southern gospel music, supervised by T Bone Burnett, that provides a warm and inviting under pinning to the story. As a matter of fact, the soundtrack for this movie became a bestseller and was on the billboard charts for over a year. Even though the stars don't do their own singing, the
musical sequences bring as much to the story as everything else.
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As always, the Cohens employ first rate production values to their story, with a special shout out to Roger Deakins' stunning, Oscar-nominated cinematography. George Clooney offers one of his breeziest performances as Everett and John Turturro is all kinds of fun as Pete. Michael Badalucco and John Goodman also appropriately chew the scenery as Baby Face Nelson and the phony salesman, respectively, but Tim Blake Nelson pretty much steals the show as the delightfully naive Delmar. There are couple of unnecessary endings tacked on the end, but this movie is joyous, raucous fun from beginning to end. 4.5

Gideon58

05-12-23, 01:11 PM

John Wick Chapter 4
The return of Hollywood's most durable action hero in 2023's John Wick Chapter 4 is not the least bit concerned with realism, but as pure non-think action entertainment, it hits the same bullseye that the first three films did.
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In this latest installment, John (Keanu Reeves) may have finally found a way out of his obligations to the mysterious High Table via a one on one showdown with a mysterious enemy from Paris known as the Marquis, but our hero must take out a whole lot of people in order to get to the Marquis, who are just as interested in getting their hands on the continually escalating bounty on John's head.
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The screenplay for this film is, at times, headache-inducing as, with the possible exception of the Marquis, it's really difficult to decipher who John's friends and enemies are. On the other hand, the connections to John in this film feel a lot more personal than they did in the first three films. In the first film, there were a lot of moments of people meeting John for the first time but being aware of his reputation. In this film, everyone who John encounters seems to have an actual past with John and find themselves conflicted regarding their relationship with him and its importance compared to their own self-preservation. Of course, the story doesn't forget one of its most amusing layers...the continued monitoring of the price of the contract on John's life, which has increased to a staggering $40 million, finding a lot of longtime friends willing to sacrifice their relationship with John for this huge payoff. And true buffs will notice affectionate winks to West Side Story and the 1979 Walter Hill film The Warriors.
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Director Chad Stahleski has chosen not to tamper with the winning formula that he established in the first three films and gives John Wick fans what they've come to expect from this franchise. There are some unintentional giggles here and there as Stahleski has pretty much abandoned the concept of realism in presenting this originally tortured super hero into a virtually indestructable killing machine who dispatches hundreds of killers with nothing more than a pistol. We do get a dash of variety here where we see a terrific one on one battle with nun chucks, not to mention a hair-raising car chase around the Arc de Triumphe where we see our hero actually get struck by five different vehicles and just get up and keep coming. Most impressive was that the final battle was a duel...yes, an actual duel with pistols and paces that crackles with tension.
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Stahleski uses his huge budget to maximum effect with lavish around the world locales, breathtaking cinematography, and I don't think I've ever said this about an action film before, but loved the costumes. The costumes for most of the villains were awesome. The film also features some impressive technical gadgetry and set pieces,,,loved the glass or plastic cards utilized to choose the weapons for the duel and the gun that shoots bullets that burst into flames upon impact. Reeves' stone-faced interpretation of this character still serves it properly and loved Bill Skarsgaard as the Marquise. It's exhausting and lets realism fall to the wayside, but as entertainment, a worthy implied finale to the franchise. 4

Gideon58

05-12-23, 07:53 PM

Ocean's Eleven (1960)
Long before anyone even knew who George Clooney or Brad Pitt were, Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack were the first ones to bring a breezy crime caper called Ocean's Eleven to the big screen way back in 1960.
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Frank Sinatra plays Danny Ocean, a gambler and womanizer who brings together a group of his old WWII army buddies together in order to pull off the ultimate crime. Danny plans to simultaneously rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve.
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The screenplay efficiently divides the story into three parts. The first third of the film centers on Danny contacting and gathering his buddies for the job and then instructing them on exactly what they're going to do. The middle third of the film is the crime itself and the final third finds Las Vegas law enforcement and a lot of other people trying to figure out exactly what happened on New Year's Eve.
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Loved the way the first third of the film not only introduces us to the central characters, but provides peeks into their personal lives, such as Danny's struggle to keep his marriage intact and Jimmy's determination to no longer be a mama's boy dependent on his mother's money to keep him happy. Director Lewis Milestone's skills really kick in during the execution of the crime where we don't exactly see what everyone's individual job is, but we do see it going off without a hitch. The pursuit for justice that occurs in the final third of the film takes a little longer than it should and exactly what happens is a bit on the ambiguous side, but it gave the story a little mystery that we don't see coming.
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Of course, with the Rat Pack as the stars, there are going to be a few musical highlights thrown in. Dean Martin gets to perform one of the biggest hits of his career "Ain't It a Kick in the Head" and Sammy Davis Jr knocks it out of the park with his bluesy take on "EO Eleven". There is a scene with a stripper where, if you listen closely, you'll recognize the song she's stripping to is the theme song from Sinatra's 1955 film The Tender Trap.
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Sinatra is all business as Danny Ocean and it goes without saying that he plays off Dean Martin and Peter Lawford perfectly. The film is packed with stars including Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Norman Fell, Ceasar Romero, Angie Dickinson, Henry Silva, and Buddy Lester. There are also fun cameos from Red Skelton, George Raft, and hysterically funny as a drunk floozy, Shirley MacLaine. It's not high art, but it's a lot of fun. Of course, the film was remade in 2001 with Clooney and Pitt and that film was followed by two dreadful sequels, but fans of that franchise might want to check this out. 3.5

Citizen Rules

05-12-23, 09:41 PM

Ocean's Eleven (1960)
...Sinatra is all business as Danny Ocean and it goes without saying that he plays off Dean Martin and Peter Lawford perfectly. The film is packed with stars including Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Norman Fell, Ceasar Romero, Angie Dickinson, Henry Silva, and Buddy Lester. There are also fun cameos from Red Skelton, George Raft, and hysterically funny as a drunk floozy, Shirley MacLaine... rating_3_5 I've seen that a couple of times, last time was like a year ago. I should love that film with the Rat Pack in it, but it didn't do much for me. Still a fun watch though and Shirley MacLaine was great in it.

Gideon58

05-13-23, 03:31 PM

Shirley MacLaine was funny as hell.

Gideon58

05-16-23, 08:05 PM

The Good Nurse
The superb performances by Oscar winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne keep the 2022 docudrama The Good Nurse compelling entertainment despite a predictable screenplay and melodramatic direction.
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Chastain plays Amy Lougheran, an ICU nurse and single mother of two with a serious heart condition for which she can't get proper treatment because she doesn't have medical insurance. She will be eligible for help with the treatment in four months as long as she continues working. Things start to look up for Amy when a sensitive male nurse named Charlie Cullen (Redmayne) begins working with her in the ICU. He and Amy bond instantly and he agrees to help her with anything she needs to get her benefits and helping her care for her kids. Unfortunately, a couple of mysterious deaths occur at the hospital and Charlie is being singled out as the prime suspect, initiating an investigation that Charlie may have had a hand in hundreds of patient deaths in hospitals all over the country.
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Enjoyed the way the story unfolded slowly in a way that we weren't exactly sure what this movie was going to be about for at least the first twenty minutes of the running time. With all the short cuts that Amy was taking in order to take care of herself and her children, we originally think that we're going to get a story about a woman taking on Big Pharma and insurance companies in order to get the health insurance they need, which would have been a wonderful story all by itself and Chastain would have been well equipped for such a story. What we do get is a crime story, a horrific crime for which we are sadly offered little information, with some strange detours along the way. Primarily, I didn't understand why the hospital where Amy and Charlie did not want to cooperate with the police investigation. Yet, quietly without informing anyone, they turn around and fire Charlie for a trumped up reason.
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What I did like about this movie is these two central characters, separately and the way they connected. I loved that Amy was this independent woman who is drowning in health and financial issues and wants to handle them her own way. Charlie is almost a guardian angel to Amy when he first appears, almost too good be true, which he was. The Charlie character initially reminded my of Jerry Lundergaard in Fargo, a baby-faced everyman doing smarmy things but always with a smile on his face, but by the beginning of the final third of the film, he has degenerated into straight up Norman Bates. LOVED the scene right after Amy learns the truth about Charlie and comes homes and finds him playing with her daughters. It reminded me of Michael Douglas coming home in Fatal Attraction and finding Glenn Close sitting in his house chatting with Anne Archer. Also loved the "controlled meet" scene where Amy pushes Charlie a little too hard to get him to confess and we think he might be onto what's happening but we're never really sure. Charlie's transition from sensitive nurse to unhinged psycho could have been a little more subtle than it was.
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Tobias Lindholm's direction is heavy-handed and pretentious, making the film a little longer than it needed to be, but I have to give a shout out to sound and sound editing, which was a real standout here. Chastain takes the conventional damsel in distress to a much more sophisticated level and there are times Redmayne's Charlie made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. These two pros make this movie more than watchable. 3.5

Gideon58

05-17-23, 09:56 PM

The Comic (1969)
A couple of years after they ended production on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Van Dyke and Carl Reiner tried to bring their television success to the big screen as the star, director, and co-screenwriter of an affectionate look at old Hollywood called The Comic that, despite some dated elements, still tells a relevant show business story, aided by a terrific performance by the star.
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Van Dyke has a field day in the role of Billy Bright, a silent movie star whose talent for making movies is eventually dwarfed by his womanizing, his drinking, his ego, and his selfishness as we watch him go from the biggest silent movie star in Hollywood to an old has been reduced to making TV commercials and fending off young starlets who want him for the money they think he has.
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Reiner and co-screenwriter Aaron Ruben are to be applauded for the respect and authenticity they put into researching the way silent films were made and their recreations of silent films are a joy to watch. It's also impressive that they weren't interested in preserving Van Dyke's image as Rob Petrie by giving him a character who has pretty much no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The gimmick of dead Billy narrating the story gets tiresome after awhile but it was kind of fun watching this Billy guy destroying his career, his marriage, and pretty much his entire life and trying to blame everyone else for what happens to him.
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The role of Billy Bright is loosely based on the life of Buster Keaton, but Van Dyke's physical approach to the role is much more akin to Stan Laurel, who was always a cinematic hero of his. This role is an actor's dream and Van Dyke pulls out all the stops in his tour de force performance. Especially loved the scenes where an angry Billy drives a car into his former home to confront his ex-wife (Michele Lee) and that scene with his wife in the car where he refuses to confess to his infidelity. And that scene of an older Billy appearing on Steve Allen's talk show was a heartbreaker.
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The film is handsomely photographed and Van Dyke is surrounded by people like MIckey Rooney, Cornel Wilde, Gavin MacLeod, and Ed Peck in thankless supporting roles. There's even a cameo from The Jefferson's Isabel Sanford, but this is Van Dyke's show and for fans of the show business legend, this is a must. 3.5

Takoma11

05-17-23, 10:11 PM

What we do get is a crime story, a horrific crime for which we are sadly offered little information, with some strange detours along the way. Primarily, I didn't understand why the hospital where Amy and Charlie did not want to cooperate with the police investigation. Yet, quietly without informing anyone, they turn around and fire Charlie for a trumped up reason.

So I read the book (by Charles Graeber, who co-wrote the screenplay here) and the real facts are pretty incredible.

Cullen had multiple hospitals where staff and patients suspected that he'd caused or contributed to deaths, but to avoid liability or bad press, they let Cullen go with a promise of a good referral. Madness. There were times he was directly caught--by co-workers or by patients' families--giving mysterious injections or messing with IVs. All of it brushed under the table.

I don't know how much the movie went into it, but he spent years working in a burn ward and was obsessed with covering the patients in this greasy cream stuff. He was a messed up guy, and he "lucked" into working in a system where profit and reputation was more important to institutions than protecting their patients.

I'd highly recommend the book, but it is very disturbing and will make you very angry.

Gideon58

05-18-23, 02:32 PM

The stuff about the burn ward never came up in this movie.

Gideon58

05-18-23, 03:10 PM

Marlowe (2022)
Neil Jordan, the director and writer of The Crying Game is the creative force behind Marlowe, a 2022 reincarnation of one of Raymond Chandler's most famous characters that, despite handsome production values, fails to engage viewers thanks to a dull and cliche-ridden screenplay that fails to engage the viewer in its attempt to salute 1930's film.
noir.
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The setting is 1939 Bay City, California where private detective Phillip Marlowe is hired by a glamorous heiress named Claire Cavendish to locate her lover, a guy named Nico Peterson. Very early into his investigation, Marlowe is led to believe that Peterson is dead and when he returns to Ms. Cavendish to inform her of this, she swears that she just recently spotted Peterson , alive and kicking.
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I've never seen The Crying Game, but I've heard nothing but good things about it, so imagine my surprise how dull and unimaginative I found this film. According to the IMDB, this is the twelfth screen appearance of this classic detective character, some of the more famous versions being The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart, Murder My Sweet with Dick Powell, and The Long Goodbye with Elliott Gould, so maybe this is just an example of going to the well once too often.
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Jordan's dialogue comes off more as a spoof of film noir rather than homage, producing several unintentional giggles. He actually employs the phrase "femme fatale"? Seriously? The Claire Cavendish character reminded me of Evelyn Mulray, Faye Dunaway's character in Chinatown. I never believed a word that came out of this character's mouth every time she appeared onscreen and her already limited appeal became even less so with the reveal of her rivalry with her wealthy mother (beautifully played by two time Oscar winner Jessica Lange). We were supposed to be shocked when it's revealed that mother and daughter have always competed for the same man. Peterson and Marlowe, included, and their battle to win over Marlowe made them look like a couple sixth graders.
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Once we learn that Claire is right and that Peterson is probably alive, this is where the movie begins to lose some serious steam as various bad guys come out of the woodwork looking for Peterson and the unsettling thing is that all seem to be looking for him for a different reason and are also willing to pay Marlowe for his assistance, who remains loyal to his original employer. It was kind of annoying the way Claire kept implying that she wanted to sleep with Marlowe, no matter how many times he told her no. The movie is crammed with so many characters looking for Nico Peterson for various reasons that they never actually verbalize, that by the halfway point of the film, I didn't give a damn whether or not Nico Peterson was dead or alive.
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On the positive side, the film is beautifully mounted, featuring the best recreation of 1930's Hollywood since Chinatown, featuring spectacular production design, art direction, and costumes, but the movie was not pretty enough to keep this reviewer from the occasional yawn. Liam Neeson sleepwalks through the title role in the most unappealing, one note performance I have seen from him. As the character tells us about halfway through the film, he just might be too old for this. Diane Kruger is a lovely but icy Claire Cavendish and Danny Houston and Alan Cumming also make the most of their roles, but truthfully, the film only comes alive when Lange is onscreen and her role is, sadly, very minor. Neil Jordan put a lot of work into this, but this reviewer actually had difficulty keeping his eyes open. 2

Takoma11

05-18-23, 05:15 PM

The stuff about the burn ward never came up in this movie.

Really?! Wow. That was a foundational part of the book, and honestly pretty creepy because it was a time in his career where he most had access to children.

Real shame about Marlowe, I've read nothing positive about it.

Gideon58

05-19-23, 06:57 PM

Airport '77
The third film in the classic franchise, Airport '77 is an overblown, airborne soap opera that, more than anything, provided this reviewer with a lot of unintentional laughs.
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In this film, a billionaire art dealer named Philip Stevens (James Stewart) is having a showing of some his latest acquisitions at his palatial home and has decided to fly a select group of people to his home for a presentation of his new pieces in his own state of the art private airliner. A commercial pilot named Don Gallagher (Jack Lemmon) has been commissioned to fly the plane. A group of art thieves have managed to board the plane with the plan of stealing the art, crashing the plane in the Bermuda Triangle, and fleeing to South America. Unfortunately, their plan falls apart when the plane accidentally clips a cargo ship which malfunctions the plane and lands it at the bottom of the ocean.
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Arthur Hailey, who wrote the best selling novel upon which the first film was based, is actually given screen credit for inspiring this melodramatic mess which not only provides the above mentioned primary plot, but attempts to layer that story with several mini-dramas centered around the allegedly doomed passengers. The most interesting of these stories revolves around an unhappy alcoholic named Karen Wallace (Lee Grant), trapped in a miserable marriage to an unscrupulous businessman (Christopher Lee) and having an affair with his assistant (Gil Gerard).
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Anyone familiar with the first two films knows that one of the requirements of an Airport movie is that the pilot has to be having an affair with the head flight attendant (of course back in '77, I think it was still OK to say "stewardess") and she is trying to get him to put a ring on it. In the original film, it was Dean Martin and Jacqueline Bisset and in Airport 1975, it was Charlton Heston and Karen Black. In this film, it's Lemmon and Brenda Vaccaro, who have no chemistry, but mercifully, the time spent on this alleged romance is brief.
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Though not the intention, there were a lot of things in this movie that had me laughing out loud and director Jerry Jameson has to take credit for most of them. I lost it when the thieves started pumping gas into the plane and the passengers started passing out...Joseph Cotten passing out right in the middle of pouring a glass of champagne had me on the floor. There also seemed to be a lot of confusion with the actors, especially some veterans who had been off the screen for years, where they didn't know exactly how they should be playing certain scenes. Cotten and two time Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland looked particularly confused throughout the film. Stewart also looked confused every moment he was onscreen. A physical altercation between Grant and Vaccaro was very funny. I also lost it when Lemmon's character, who went through hell to get off that plane and get help, ended up back inside the plane with Vaccaro five minutes before it was to sink to the ocean floor forever
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Jameson seemed more concerned with the technical aspects of the story, but that didn't stop him from cramming the screen with a lot of once and future stars like Darrin McGavin, Robert Foxworth, Pamela Bellwood, M Emmett Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, Robert Hooks, Monte Markham, Maidie Norman. and in his obligatory appearance in each film in the franchise, George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. If the truth be told, the only thing that made this movie worth watching was the flashy performance by Lee Grant. 2

Gideon58

05-20-23, 07:27 PM

The Pale Blue Eye
A standard murder mystery turns out to be anything but in 2022's The Pale Blue Eye, a handsomely mounted murder mystery rich with story elements we don't see coming, executed by a strong cast.
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The setting is West Point in the year 1830 where we meet Augustus Landor (Oscar winner Christian Bale), a detective struggling with his personal demons, who is dispatched by the famed military academy to look into the death of a young cadet. We learn immediately that the cadet hung himself, but the body was tampered with after his death. Finding a blue wall of silence for the most part, Landor does find what seems to be willing assistance in unraveling this mystery from a young cadet and poet named Poe...Edgar Allan Poe.
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Director and co-screenwriter Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace)) has constructed a compelling story that has several original elements that give the story an added richness. It was interesting to see a murder mystery set in the early 1800's, which allowed Cooper an often breathtaking canvas upon which the story unfolds. With a renowned poet and author like Edgar Allan Poe, it shouldn't have been a surprise that the story eventually reveals a supernatural element. Cooper and Louis Bayard's screenplay drops discreetly-placed red herrings throughout the story, possibly contributing to the film's slight overlength, but some of them are extremely effective. We immediately know is all is not as it seems when Landor meets with the doctor who examined the body and, during his examination, and the doctor did not find a crucial piece of evidence, but we're not sure whether or not it was on purpose. I was also impressed that the screenplay wasn't peppered with a lot of adult language in order to make the story attractive to younger viewers.
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Fictional stories featuring real life figures are almost always risky, but the risk is minimal here because there's not a lot that we as viewers really know about Poe, making it a little easier to accept what happens here. The relationship that is established between Landor and Poe is fun to watch and I liked the fact that Poe spent a lot of time providing clues to Landor and leading him in the proper direction rather than telling him exactly what he needed to know. Landor's personal demons, centered mostly around the death of his daughter initially seem to pad running time, but they are beautifully addressed during the final act, when we think the film is about to end, but it doesn't.
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The film is technically glorious, featuring breathtaking cinematography, production design, art direction, costumes, and Howard Shore's gorgeous music. Christian Bale adds another beautifully controlled and enigmatic performance to his character as Landor. Just has he did when he played Dick Cheney in Vice, Bale manages to command the screen rarely speaking above a stage whisper. Harry Melling's flashy performance as Edgar Allen Poe was fun as well. Toby Jones, as always, brings just the right of smarm to the incompetent doctor and Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, and the legendary Robert Duvall make the most of underwritten roles. It's a tad longer than it needed to be, but Scott's direction and his wonderful cast make it worth a look. 3.5

Takoma11

05-20-23, 08:15 PM

Most people I've talked to about it were kind of underwhelmed, but your review makes me want to check it out.

Gideon58

05-25-23, 12:34 PM

My Blue Heaven (1950)
One of five films they made together, Betty Grable and Dan Dailey star in 1950's My Blue Heaven, a big budget Fox musical that centers on some rather mature subject matter for a 50's musical, providing about two thirds of a really great movie.
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Jack and Kitty Moran are the stars of their own radio program who want more than anything to have a baby. After suffering through a miscarriage and a failed attempt at adoption, the Morans are finally blessed with a baby, which motivates Kitty to give up her career just as she and Jack have begun their own television show. The Morans' happiness is threatened by a bubbly chorus girl named Gloria, who has had a crush on Jack for years.
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The screenplay for this movie plays more like a melodrama than a musical as we watch Jack and Kitty struggle with one disappointment after another in an effort to start a family. Even though they go through a lot of emotional upheaval in order to have a baby, the Morans devotion to each other remains solid, despite the presence of the flirty Gloria. It was a nice comic touch that for most of the film, Kitty is aware of Gloria's crush but doesn't really take it seriously. The story here is strong for a musical, so strong that it could have played without most of the musical numbers, which don't really do anything to advance story or define characters.
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The musical sequences are well-staged and Grable and Dailey have a real Astaire/Rogers quality when they hit the screen together. Dailey, in particular, is so light on his feet and I've never understood why he never had an Astaire-calibre career because he was that good a dancer. Most of the musical numbers are pretty much filler, with one terrific exception. "Live Hard, Work Hard, Love Hard" is a clever musical fantasy which begins with Dailey and Mitzi Gaynor as Gloria performing on television together, while Grable's Kitty is home with the baby and the trio communicate musically through the television screen, easily the musical highlight of the film.
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Director Henry Koster provides an energetic pacing to the story and makes a sincere effort to make the musical numbers a viable part of the story, even though they aren't for the most part. Grable and Dailey are terrific together as they always were and young Mitzi Gaynor's effervescent performance as Gloria definitely shows why she would eventually become the star she did. David Wayne, Jane Wyatt, and Una Merkel provide solid support, but it's Grable and Dailey's show, a show that might have worked a lot better without most of the musical numbers, but entertainment value can be gleaned here. 3

Gideon58

05-25-23, 09:49 PM

Love to Love You Donna Summer
Eleven years after her death, HBO has brought us a slightly pretentious, but ultimately empty look at the Queen of Disco called Love to Love You Donna Summer, that does a competent overview of the singer's brief and brilliant career, but offers little insight into who this diva was.
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Directed by Roger Ross Williams and Donna's daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, the film surprisingly opens at the height of her career in 1975, when she has just recorded the controversial 1975 chart topper "Love to Love You Baby." For those too young to remember this record, I'm going to suggest that you go to You Tube and listen to it. Summer is observed explaining her inspiration behind the song and how it secretly haunted her for the rest of her life.
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The film then recounts Donna's childhood, being raised by God-fearing parents who were convinced their baby was going to grow up and be a Gospel singer. It was a little unsettling when revealed that Donna's two biggest musical influences growing up were Mahalia Jackson and Janis Joplin, two artists who couldn't have been more opposite and how their influence was the genesis of the Queen of Disco is still a mystery.
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There were a few things about Summer I learned via this documentary, most notably that she actually wrote the majority of her records (of course she didn't write "MacArthur Park). Unfortunately, like when we get a celebrity documentary about a film actor, we usually get information on how the film was inspired and how it was eventually conceived into the final product, but we get very little of that here. We do learn where the inspiration for the "Toot toot beep beep" at the beginning of "Bad Girls" came from. Was really hoping for some behind the scenes dirt on her duet with Barbra Streisand "Enough is Enough", but it's barely mentioned.
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Through narration mostly provided by family members, we learn that there was a certain arrogance to Summer from the very beginning and that she always knew she was going to be a star. On the other hand, while watching the tons of archival concert footage of the singer performing live, she never looks truly happy and that this wasn't the original route that she wanted her career to take. And far as her live singing is concerned, it's quite noticeable the difference between her singing live and the recordings we all remember, which apparently were heavily enhanced in the studio before release.
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There is screentime devoted to the many relationships Summer had with men and I was a bit taken aback to discover that Summer was almost exclusively involved with white men, though that is never really addressed. And maybe because it was so long after her death, but I felt the same way after watching this as I did when I watched the Jennifer Lopez documentary Halftime...there's a real wall constructed here between the viewer and the subject that kept me from enjoying it as much as I should have. 3.5

Gideon58

05-27-23, 09:50 PM

My Foolish Heart
An effervescent performance by Susan Hayward anchors a sweet-natured romantic melodrama from 1949 called My Foolish Heart, which seems like a much better movie than it is because of Hayward's performance.
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Hayward plays Eloise Winters, a miserable alcoholic housewife married to a stuffed shirt named Lew and is mother to an adorable little girl named Ramona. As the film opens, Eloise has a reunion with Mary Jane, her old college roommate and former girlfriend of Lew and this reunion triggers the real story here: the star-crossed romance between Eloise and a charming young soldier named Walt Dreiser (Dana Andrews).
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Julius J and Philip G Epstein adapted the screenplay from a novel by JD Salinger called Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut and according to the IMDB, is the only work of Salinger's ever to be transferred to the screen. Apparently, his unhappiness with the finished product prompted Salinger to forbid any of his other work to be made into a movie, especially Catcher in the Rye. Granted, I haven't read Salinger's novel, but I don't know what he was so upset about. There are some dated elements to the story, but this is a classic star-crossed wartime romance that was all the rage during the 1940's and because of the flashback setup, we kind of know where everything is going, but the romance of Eloise and Walt is so completely engaging that we want to see what happens.
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Despite the dated elements, I was surprised that there were some actual laugh out loud moments along the way. I thought it was adorable that Eloise was suspended from school because she was caught kissing Walt in the elevator by the Dean and the polar opposite reactions of her father and mother were also very funny. I also liked the way the film opened with a drunk and miserable Eloise, the way we're accustomed to seeing Hayward and then the story flashes back to a buttoned up girl very concerned about being considered a proper young lady but dying to burst out of it. Also loved the way Eloise became a little more manipulative as the story progressed, The two scenes where she tried to get Walt to say he loves her and to get him to propose to her were superbly performed by Hayward, who took these scenes off the page and made them sing.
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Hayward proves why she was one of the great queens of melodrama with a dazzling performance that earned her a second Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress. Andrews is charming as Walt and I loved Robert Keith as Eloise's father and the fabulous Jessie Royce Landis, in only her third film appearance sand steals every scene she had as Eloise's mother. Kent Smith and Lois Wheeler were a little vanilla in the key roles of Lew and Mary Jane, taking a little sting out of the material, but Hayward is so good here we are able to forgive most of what is wrong. 3.5

Gideon58

05-29-23, 02:59 PM

Creed III
Michael B Jordan makes a surprisingly effective debut in the director's chair as the past of Adonis Creed catches up to him in the emotionally charged Creed III that not only is a worthy third entry in this franchise, but actually hearkens the spirit of the original 1976 Sylvester Stallone Best Picture Oscar winner as well.
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As the 2023 film opens, Adonis has just retired from the ring after a final victory when he is reunited with Damian Anderson, his childhood running partner with whom he was involved in an incident many years ago from which Adonis escaped but landed Damian in jail for 18 years. Adonis is thrown when Damian is not just looking for a handout but wants Adonis' assistance in getting him a title shot with the new champion, Felix Chavez. Damian easily dispatches Chavez of his title, but it is only then when Damian's true agenda is revealed: revenge against the childhood friend who he thinks turned his rich and famous back on him.
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Ryan Coogler, the creative force behind Black Panther is one of the screenwriters for this story that not only creates a story from Creed's past, a story of friendship and loyalty that initially seems inspired by the original Rocky as Damian wants Adonis' assistance in getting the same kind of shot at Chavez that Rocky Balboa got frim Apollo Creed back in '76. The initial reunion between these two guys cleverly sets up the fact that all Damian wants is Adonis' help in getting the shot, making the viewer think that the story will have Adonis passing on the torch to his childhood BFF, but this isn't what happens at all,
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Jordan's direction is very focused on this story that doesn't really try to cover too much territory the way the second film did. He puts a lot of care into the scenes with Adonis' hearing-impaired daughter and his conflict about training her to fight when she gets in trouble at school for punching another student. His connection to his mother is also addressed in an economic matter, even if what happens is telegraphed, but Jordan's direction easily allows us to overlook that. As always with these films, the training sequences are on the money, which actually include a shot of Adonis dragging an airplane attached to his back Jordan is also to be applauded for his complete exit from reality in the final climactic showdown which we don't see coming at all.
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Jordan makes effective use of the obvious huge budget he was afforded here, with special shout outs to editing, costumes, sound, and music. Despite his presence in the director's chair, Jordan still commands the screen in the title role and Jonathan Majors is a very effective black hat as Damian. An extremely entertaining third entry in the franchise that doesn't set up a fourth film, but doesn't shut down the possibility either. 4

Gideon58

05-29-23, 06:40 PM

The Candidate (1972)
Jeremy Larner's Oscar-winning screenplay and Robert Redford's charismatic performance in the title role are the stars of 1972's The Candidate, a caustic and unapologetic look at the political machine and its intricacies that one particular politician wants no part of.
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Redford plays Bill McKay, an idealistic California lawyer who has a political legacy that he is trying to distance himself from (his father is the governor of California). Crocker Jarman, the tight-assed republican running for re-election of his senatorial seat seams unbeatable and even if the democrats don't have a solution for the election, do know they need to do something new and different in order to give Jarman a run for his money. McKay is approached to run against Jarman for the senate seat, but his handlers don't find it easy working with McKay as his handlers discover that McKay refuses to be handled.
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Larner's screenplay is a dead on look at the political machinations that have had our nation in such a vice grip for so long that a lot of people out there have just stopped voting. What makes Larner story so interesting is not just the fact that McKay refuses to be a puppet for the democrats, but he admits to not having all the answers as well. It was so refreshing that during his very first television appearance where he announces his candidacy, he is asked about his position on a topic and he actually says "I don't know.
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Director Michael Ritchie is no stranger to films about competition with movies like Smile, Semi-Tough, The Bad News Bears, and Wildcats under his belt and he brings the same unvarnished look at what some people will do in the name of winning that he did in those films. With this film, however, as much as our hero wants to win, he wants to win on his own terms and doesn't want to offer solutions that he really doesn't have. Richie not only shows the travails of trying to train McKay to be a politician, but he also does a more than credible job showing us how this new McKay political machine works by actually giving camera time to the voters and showing us who they are getting through to, who they're not getting through, and most importantly, those who don't care or don't get it.
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For a film so early in his career, Redford has rarely commanded the screen the way he does here. Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield, and Michael Lerner offer solid support as the guys who try to handle McKay, and there is a slick glorified cameo by Melvyn Douglas as McKay's father, who does his best to downplay his estranged relationship with his son. There's also a blink and you miss it cameo from two time Redford leading lady Natalie Wood. It's a little on the talky side, but all of the talk is very smart. 4

Gideon58

05-31-23, 06:10 PM

Spinning Gold
The 2023 film Spinning Gold is an overlong and overblown biopic allegedly providing the viewer a look into the life of Neil Bogart, the co-founder of Casablanca Records, who took credit for the success of some of music's biggest stars, including the rock group KISS and the disco queen Donna Summer.
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This film introduces Bogart as a slick show business hustler who went through several occupations and name changes before finally finding his calling at Casablanca Records, where his handling KISS, Summer, George Clinton, the Isley Brothers, and other artists falters due to his true lack of experience in the business and his blaming his mistakes on everyone he works for, refusing to be accountable for anything that happens, including driving the label $6,000,000 into the red.
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Incredibly, this film was written and directed by Bogart's son, Timothy Scott Bogart, who doesn't paint his father in a favorable light at all. This might have been due to the logistics of bringing this story to the screen, that were probably pretty complicated considering that a lot of the artists are still with us, probably causing Timothy to make a lot of concessions to get the film made that really take away from the authenticity of what we see here. None of the actors playing any of the artists even begin to resemble the people they are portraying and no original recordings were used for the musical segments centered on said artists, making what we're being told here a little hard to believe.
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It doesn't help that Bogart's screenplay follows the typical biopic route that we've seen in a million other movies, featuring every show business cliche we've ever seen. The initial romance where he tells the woman he loves of his big dreams, the rocket-speed trip to financial success and living to the excess, turning to the mob for financial assistance, infidelity and drugs also make their expected appearances in the story. The story also insists that Bogart is responsible for most of the artists biggest hits. The scene depicting Neil helping Donna Summer create her controversial 1976 hit "Love to Love You Baby" bordered on laughable. Ditto Bogart's narration, a lot of it done directly to the camera.
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Bogart was clearly afforded a huge budget to bring this story to the screen, but it doesn't appear to have been evenly spread out. The hedonistic 1970's are recreated realistically, though some production values were definitely lacking here, sound in particular...there are several scenes, mostly the ones between Bogart and his wife, Beth, where it was impossible to hear exactly what the characters were saying. It was so bad that I actually had turn on the closed captioning to catch a lot of dialogue.
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The performances are a matter of taste. Jeremy Jordan's performance as Bogart was a little overripe for my tastes. Michelle Monaghan tries to make her thankless role of Beth worth investing in. There is strong work from Lyndsey Fonseca as KISS' manager who has an affair with Bogart and Jay Pharoah and Dan Fogler as other Casablanca employees, but this film is an overlong and sometimes dull film experience that didn't endear me to the subject at all. 2.5

Gideon58

06-01-23, 06:54 PM

Alex in Wonderland
Perhaps a little full of himself after his smash hit Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky did a serious backslide with 1970's Alex in Wonderland, a talky and pretentious show business comedy-drama that starts off promisingly, but eventually veers off in so many directions that the viewer really doesn't have a clue what Mazursky is trying to say here.
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Donald Sutherland plays the title character, Alex Morrison, a movie director who has just completed directing his first film. The film has not been released yet, but it's getting very positive buzz. Alex finds himself being courted by a major studio head and trying to put his wife off regarding buying a bigger house, but the only thing on Alex's mind is what his next project is going to be. The problem is Alex has no idea what that project is going to be.
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Initially, Mazursky and Larry Tucker's screenplay seems to be an Americanized version of 8 1/2. Federico Fellini even makes a cameo appearance in the film. Initial interest is provided as Alex contemplates making a film about Lenny Bruce but decides not to do it because he feels no one can play Lenny Bruce but Lenny Bruce. Then he decides he wants to make a movie about racial tension in the country, but friends and hangers on convince him that he is unqualified to make such a movie. We then just watch Alex wandering around Hollywood looking for ideas and it isn't nearly as interesting as Mazursky thinks it is.
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The core of the piece actually comes early on when Alex meets with a studio head (played by Mazursky himself) who has apparently seen Alex's first film and is determined that his second film will be for him and throws every script on his desk at Alex, in hopes that he will accept one as his next directorial assignment. This scene is terrific; unfortunately, the film goes seriously downhill after that where we are subjected to bizarre fantasy sequences that are supposed to represent the kind of movie Alex wants to make, including an encounter with a group of naked black people that reminded me of a scene in the equally bizarre Up the Sandbox and a chance encounter in a bookstore with French actress Jeanne Moreau that actually turns into a musical number. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of Alex emotionally abusing his family because he can't decide what he wants to do next. And I'm still scratching my head over the last ten minutes of the film...it doesn't seem to end, it just seems to stop.
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What does make this movie worth a look is a near brilliant performance by Donald Sutherland as Alex and the always watchable Ellen Burstyn does bring substance to the role of the wife that isn't in the screenplay. Mazursky's real life daughter, Meg, also appears as Alex's older daughter, Amy. I've always been a fan of Mazursky's work, but this one just left me confused and a little bored. 2

Gideon58

06-02-23, 07:36 PM

Of an Age
An Australian filmmaker named Goran Stolevski, who began his career making short films, absolutely knocks it out of the park as the director, writer, and editor of his second feature length film called Of an Age, a sweet, sad, and tasteful romantic drama that tells a story with leisure without challenging viewer attention spans and is so good that I would have awarded it a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination over Triangle of Sadness.
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The film opens in 1999, introducing us to Kol, a 17 year old guy preparing to enter the finals of a ballroom dancing contest with his BFF Ebony who is taken by surprise when he finds himself attracted to Ebony's older brother, Adam.
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I absolutely loved this movie because Stolevski's screenplay doesn't play all of its cards at once and allows the audience to do a little work where figuring out what is going on here is concerned. He also allows his camera to be the primary storytelling tool here. Our first glimpse of Kol finds him dancing bare-chested in front of a mirror. A couple of scenes later, a stranger to Kol describes as being gay to someone over the phone, which prompts an immediate reply from Kol: "I'm not really gay." With the insertion of the word "really" into that line, Stolevski gives us Kol's backstory. We immediately know that Kol is either bisexual, in the closet, bi-curious, or questioning his sexuality. With one word in the screenplay, Stolevski takes about twenty minutes off the running time.
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The most fascinating aspect of the story is the very slow dance to a possible romance that follows. Stolevski takes an unconventional route with this by placing Kol and Adam in a car during their first scene alone, limiting what can happen between them and letting the camera tell the story as it takes turn playing Adam and Kol's eyes, surveying each other physically, all the while engaged in polite conversation. There's a fantastic scene where Kol and Adam are in Adam's bedroom and Kol is changing his shirt because he spilled something on it. As Kol dresses and undresses we can see, without the use of any dialogue, how much these two want each other, but they both want the other to make the first move.
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I love that the first physical contact between Kol and Adam is a lovingly photographed handshake and when they do finally have sex, Stolevski once again places them inside a vehicle, leaving a lot to viewer imagination. We are shocked that, after one encounter, they are separated like ships in the night. What we don't see coming is reunion 11 years later and even that doesn't go as we hoped. Did love that after 11 years, Kol returns to the story as an out and proud gay man. There is a touch ambiguity to the ending, but it just adds an extra layer of richness to what we've already seen.
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Stolevski has a richly imaginative and erotic camera eye that provides romance with taste and never crosses the line into exploitation and never gives us stereotypical gay behavior from Kol and Adam, making this story accessible to a heterosexual audience with an open mind. Elias Anton and Thom Green create a magical chemistry as Kol and Adam, respectively, that help to make this one of the best movies of 2022 that nobody saw. 4.5

Gideon58

06-03-23, 09:51 PM

Loving Couples
The 1980 comedy Loving Couples is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy that remains somewhat watchable thanks to a terrific cast.
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Evelyn (Shirley MacLaine) is a doctor who is feeling neglected by her husband, Walter (James Coburn), who is also a doctor. Evelyn's discontent with her marriage makes it very easy for her to drift into an affair with one of her patients, a sexy real estate agent named Greg (Stephen Collins). It's not long before Walter gets a visit from a weather girl named Stephanie (Susan Sarandon), who informs him that she is Greg's girlfriend and that he is having an affair with Evelyn. Of course, Walter and Stephanie decide the best way to get back at their unfaithful lovers is by giving them a dose of their own medicine.
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The screenplay by Martin Donovan (Death Becomes Her) sometimes plays like a throwback to romantic comedies of the 1950's and other times like an extended episode of a sitcom. To give you an idea of the kind of film we're talking about, if it were made in the 50's, Evelyn and Walter would have been played by Doris Day and Cary Grant and Stephanie would have been played by Marilyn Monroe. There's a dangling plot point here and there, like we never find out exactly how Stephanie found out who Evelyn was, but it eventually becomes irrelevant. One original bit that brought the film its biggest laugh is when the four principals meet face to face for the first time and discover what's going on. There's also an unnecessary plot complication when an amorous customer of Greg's, played by the fabulous Sally Kellerman, starts to come between him and Evelyn.
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Jack Smight's direction is definitely on the pedestrian side and makes an hour and thirty-seven minute film seem twice as long. A running bit about James Coburn's teeth also grows tiresome pretty quickly, as do Stephanie's jokes about the trials and tribulations of being a weather girl, which only make the less than interesting central plot even less interesting than it already is,
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Smight does put together a pretty good cast to pull this kind of predictable hijinks off. MacLaine is a little one-note for my tastes, but Coburn is fantastic and Sarandon brings a substance to Stephanie that is not in the screenplay and, of course, Kellerman steals every scene she's in. When it all comes down to it, this is another one of those movies that is like a beautifully wrapped package with nothing inside. 2.5

Takoma11

06-03-23, 09:56 PM

somewhat watchable

LOL, talk about damning by faint praise.

Gideon58

06-06-23, 06:30 PM

Air
The decades old collaborative relationship with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon has come up with another winner with their 2023 film Air, a slightly manipulative, but very effective look at a marketing strategy that became a singular and all-consuming mission for one particular shoe salesman.
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It's the 1980's (and director Affleck makes no bones about pounding this into the viewer's heads) where Nike, which appears to be the #4 shoe company at the time, looking for a way to boost their revenue. One of their salesman, Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) decides the way to do that is by getting the greatest basketball player in the world, Michael Jordan, to endorse one of their sneaker designs. Sonny's idea, though, is instead of having the athlete endorse a particular shoe, design a show created specifically for Jordan and naming it after him.
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Director Affleck actually gave a television writer named Alex Convery his first shot at a screenplay, and for a first time screenwriter, the work is pretty impressive. The story might have just a tad more detail than necessary and takes a little too much time with setting up the 80's but the Cinderella story of Sonny Vaccaro is a joy to watch...the slightly overweight dreamer who has settled into the quiet rut his life becomes until this opportunity falls into his lap. It was especially fun watching Vaccaro trying to convince his bosses what he wants to do and then defying everyone by making the forbidden move of talking to Michael's parents. Loved when Sonny first arrives at the Jordan home and meets his parents and dad stays in front working on the car while mom deals with Mr. Vaccaro.
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One thing I loved that Affleck did here was, being aware that he was dealing with Jordan at the beginning of the career, he knew he could not cast Jordan as himself (apparently he even told this to Jordan personally), so he does cast a young actor in the role, but we never see his face and he never speaks. His mom handles all negotiations for him. I loved that first meeting between Vacarro and Mrs. Jordan, the planning meeting of the Nike staff where they decide CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) should arrive at the meeting seven minutes late, Sonny's first talk with Michael's agent, David Falk, Sonny's speech at the meeting, and his final phone conversation with Mrs. Jordan.
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Affleck put a lot of care into production values here and I was particularly impressed with the music that frames the story. Not only are original recordings from th 80's employed, but some of the most famous riffs and vamps heard during the 1980's are tweaked just enough that Affleck probably didn't have to pay for permission to use them. Matt Damon brings a lovely sincerity to Vaccaro and gets solid support from Jason Bateman as marketing exec Rob Strasser, and Chris Tucker as Howard White. Oscar winner Viola Davis and Chris Messina steal every scene they're in as Jordan's mother and agent, respectively. It takes a little longer than necessary, but a very smooth and entertaining ride nevertheless. 4

Gideon58

06-07-23, 07:24 PM

North by Northwest
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, teams with one of his favorite leading men, the iconic Cary Grant and knocked it out of the park with the classic 1959 suspense thriller North by Northwest that combines suspense, humor, and action in a package that is so engaging this reviewer stayed on the edge of his chair. This film was robbed of a 1959 Best Picture nomination and, as he was so many times, Hitch was also robbed of a Best Director nomination.
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Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, a New York advertising executive who gets abducted when he is mistaken for a man named George Kaplan and finds himself in so much danger that a bottle of bourbon is poured down his throat and he is placed in an automobile planning for him to drive it off a cliff. No sooner does he miraculously get out of that mess is he framed for murder at the United Nations in front of dozens of people, which sends him on the run for his life.
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To reveal anymore of what happens would be wrong, but let me say that this film has always been considered top tier Hitchcock and there's a reason for that. In my review of more than one Hitchcock film, I have mentioned that with his films, it is not so much the story but the way it is told. With a screenplay by six time Oscar nominee Ernest Lehman, we have a first rate story that offers mystery, romance, red herrings, humor, and, of course suspense, at every turn. Loved after his drunken automobile ride when Roger returns to the scene of the crime and finds there's no bourbon stain on the sofa and the liquor cabinet is now a bookshelf. The scenes of him playing detective with his mother, played by the fabulous Jessie Royce Landis, in Kaplan's hotel room is a welcome comic respite to what has gone on up to that point. The story presented initially provides us with two sets of black hats and we somehow know they aren't both black hats we just can't figure out which is which.
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And as soon as the comic relief winds down, we get undeniable sexual tension between Roger and the icy Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) that arrives a little too on cue to be coincidental but we have to wait a minute to find out what's going on there. And there are no words for that crop duster plane sequence...loved the way it started with a quiet shot of the plane WAY in the background that only lasts a couple of seconds and the conclusion of it, which we definitely don't see coming. And a big bouquet to Hitch for setting that heart-stopping finale on the faces of Mount Rushmore. Most directors would have put that scene on the Hollywood sign.
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Grant and Hitchcock work well together here and I'm glad Jimmy Stewart was doing Anatomy of a Murder making him unavailable for this. The sexual sparks Grant creates with Eva Marie Saint are undeniable and I loved the steely turn from James Mason and Martin Landau as his number one flying monkey. It's a tad longer than it needs to be, but anyway you slice it, a classic that lived up to its reputation. 4.5

Gideon58

06-08-23, 07:58 PM

Being Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore, whose passing in 2017 I'm still in denial about, is the subject of 2023's Being Mary Tyler Moore, a slightly overlong but loving look at the iconic actress that doesn't seem to have been created for people who want to learn about her, but for people who already adored her and want to revel in that adoration.
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The movie actually uses two different interviews from very different periods of her life that serve as a hook for the film and director James Adolphus goes back to over and over. One is an interview from the 1960's with David Susskind while The Dick Van Dyke Show was still in production. The other, which I suspect was in the 1980's, finds her being interviewed by Rona Barrett, whose face we never see.
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The film does eventually get down to the facts, starting with Mary's childhood in a racially charged Brooklyn neighborhood. This film provides the first look at Mary's parents, who I've never seen before, sitting in the front row of a taping of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the seven season sitcom where Moore created the 1970's first true symbol of feminism, Mary Richards, even though this was not Mary's intent at all. Mary's feminist sensibilities are revealed long before that as we learn that it was Mary's idea, not Carl Reiner's or anybody else, that Laura Petrie wear pants.
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It was wonderful seeing clips from Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman, the CBS television special that Van Dyke threw to Mary and ended up getting her the offer of her own show. Loved learning that when Mary agreed to make her Broadway dramatic debut in Whose Life is it Anyway?, she showed up at the first rehearsal with the entire role memorized. Also loved the home movies of Mary's bridal shower before marrying Robert Levine.
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But it's the glimpses into her personal life that were the most revealing for this reviewer. One of the few things I actually learned in this documentary is that Mary had a younger sister named Elizabeth who overdosed at the tender age of 21. This was one of the few things Moore was a little reluctant to talk to Rona Barrett about. This and the accidental death of her son, Richie.
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Again, this documentary does provide a lot of information about the actress that people who aren't hardcore fans of the actress didn't know. However, for hardcore fans of Mary, this movie allows us to revel in the incredible one-of-a-kind performer Mary was and if you're looking to find out that Mary's onscreen persona was the polar opposite of who she was, you will be disappointed. Commentary is provided by Ed Asner, James L Brooks, Treva Silverman, Mary's best friend, actress Beverly Sanders, Norman Lear, Joel Grey, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, Katie Couric, and many more. Serious Mary Tyler Moore fans will be in heaven here. 4

Citizen Rules

06-08-23, 08:17 PM

Being Mary Tyler Moore 2017 rating_4Oh, I've got to see that. I'm a big MTM fan. Glad you reviewed that as I'd never heard of it before.

KeyserCorleone

06-10-23, 05:03 PM

North by Northwest is my number 5 Hitchcock, and for a while it was my number 1 before I re-evaluated Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo.

Gideon58

06-12-23, 06:42 PM

I would definitely be torn between Psycho and Rear Window

Gideon58

06-12-23, 07:09 PM

The North Avenue Irregulars
Back in 1979, Disney Studios had a modest hit with a silly action comedy called The North Avenue Irregulars that offers pretty consistent laughs throughout and some serious star power, but it's difficult to figure out who the intended demographic for this film was.
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Rev. Michael Hill is a widowed minister with two small children who is getting ready to begin his new assignment at the North Avenue Church when he is approached by agents from the US Treasury requesting assistance in bringing down a gambling syndicate in town. Rev. Hill finds resistance from the local businessmen in town who are afraid of retaliation, but he does find willing volunteers in six of his female congregants who are more than willing to go after the bad guys.
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After watching this film, I did confirm my suspicion that it was based on a true story since Don Tait's screenplay was based on a book written by Rev. Albert Fay Hill. This was another reason I wondered who the demographic for this film was, because if you were looking for fact-based stories where ministers took on the mob in the late 1970's, the last place you'd look is Disney Studios, but that's what they have done here.
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The other reason I suspected that this film was based on true events that there's so much that goes on here that's just too silly not to be based in some sort of truth. And just when we're getting into the spirit of said silliness, we take a dark turn at the halfway point of the film where the church is actually set on fire, where we actually begin to wonder if we're watching a Disney movie.
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Director Bruce Bilson, whose primary directing experience was in television, provides yeomen service to this fast-moving story, which consists of a lot of complex car-chases that involve a lot of vehicles on a lot of crowded LA streets and some strong camerawork and Bilson delivers for the most part, though there are a couple of moments during the final showdown where we can actually see the reflection of the blue screen behind some of the actor's silhouettes. And must also mention how much the opening credits and music reminded me of The Pink Panther.
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The late Edward Herrmann, who would later make a career for himself as Hollywood's most cuckolded husband, was a surprisingly charming leading man in the role of Rev. Hill and created a nice chemistry with Susan Clark as the serious and sincere Church secretary. Cloris Leachman, Karen Valentine, Virginia Capers, Patsy Kelly, and the fabulous Barbara Harris play the other five lady bad-asses. Along the way if you pay attention, you will also catch appearances from Michael Constantine, Herb Voland, Steve Franken, Frank Campanella, Alan Hale, Dena Dietrich, Louisa Moritz, Ivor Francis, Ruth Buzzi, and that's a very young Melora Hardin playing the Reverend's young daughter, Carmel. It's no Mary Poppins, but there's some fun to be gleaned here. 3.5

Gideon58

06-13-23, 06:48 PM

Big George Foreman
The 2023 biopic Big George Foreman is the long and rambling look at the legendary heavyweight boxer who earned the championship title at the age of 25 and briefly regained it twenty years later, the only boxer ever to achieve that feat.
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The classic biopic route is charted here as we watch George from his dirt poor childhood to his ascent to the championship, his loss of said championship, which led to his finding religion and a brief tenure as a minister before opening a youth community center and eventually back on the road to being the World Heavyweight Champion.
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Director and screenwriter George Tillman, who directed a film I loved called The Hate U Give, puts a lot of work and respect in his presentation of Foreman's life, which has definitely been a unique journey that deserves a tribute, it's just ashamed that Tillman couldn't have applied a little more imagination to the execution of his dream. The screenplay he co-wrote with Frank Baldwin borders on cliche and something this familiar shouldn't take this long to unfold before us.
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There's just too many scenes here that we've seen a million times in other movies that just didn't bring anything new to the table. From the childhood dreams and bullying scenes to the "my business partner ran off with my money" scene to the "you're too old to come back", these scenes all come to fruition here but it all felt so "been there done that" that this movie seemed about six hours long.
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What did make this movie worth investing in was a surprisingly effective performance from Khris Davis in the title role. Davis, whose credits include Judas and the Black Messiah and Space Jam A New Legacy, gives a real movie star performance as Foreman, which Davis seems to have developed from the outside in...watch the walk, anyone whose ever seen Foreman will see that Davis nails it, as well as Foreman's gregarious spirit that inhabits the performance as well. Davis makes us fall in love with Foreman and make us stay that way until the closing credits. Similar to a moment in the Eddie Murphy film Dolemite is My Name, loved when George confesses to his trainer when he's getting back in the ring for the first time in a decade that he's embarrassed to take off his robe.
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Tillman has been afforded a big budget for this story and all the money is up there on the screen. Shout-outs to art direction/set direction, production design, and costumes, which are definite standouts. There are a couple of surprises in the supporting cast other than Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker as George's trainer Doc Broadus and Sonja Sohn as George's mother. LOVED Sullivan Jones as Muhammed Ali, Matthew Glave as Howard Cossell, and a dead on impersonation of Johnny Carson from an actor named Tom Virtue, but this movie definitely could have used a tighter screenplay, but there's enough here to gain attention, especially the impressive performance by Khris Davis in the title role. 3.5

Gideon58

06-15-23, 02:04 PM

Dad
1989's Dad is a sweet and manipulative family comedy-drama that makes up for its slight overlength with some top-notch performances from a terrific cast, which includes three Oscar winners. Caught in the right mood, this one could ignite a tear duct.
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John Tremont (Ted Danson) is a hard working businessman who drops everything when he learns that his mother (Olympia Dukakis) has had a heart attack. We learn that Mom has put her own life on hold so that she can care for John's father, Jake (Jack Lemmon) who seems to be quietly slipping into senility. John wants mom to concentrate on her own health for a change and offers to put his life on hold to take of dad, with an assist from his sister (Kathy Baker) and his son, Billy (Ethan Hawke).
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Director and screenwriter Gary David Goldberg has crafted a story of a family trying to hold things together in a crisis, even though the story did feature a few things that didn't make sense to this viewer. Most of the time when we meet elderly characters like Jake in movies, they are very moody and cantankerous, angry about the aging process and how they can't control it. I had an aunt who was like that during her final years. This Jake Tremont seemed to harbor no bitterness or resentment about getting old and puts complete trust in his loving wife, Bette and then in John. Since the film is entitled Dad, I was expecting Bette to die, leaving John and Jake to bond without her, but Bette recovers quickly but doesn't like what Jake's relationship with John has done to her relationship with him.
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The abrupt changes in Jake's health were also a little hard to believe. He seems OK until he is diagnosed with Cancer and it seems like just the diagnosis sends Jake into a coma, at which point, John actually moves into his dad's hospital room. These scenes reminded me of Sally Field trying to take care of a dying Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias, a film that was released the same year. Then one day, Jake just wakes up and wants to live life to its fullest, trying all the things he never tried before, which came off a little cliched. Flashbacks to Jake's childhood that allegedly were related to Jake's condition just seemed to pad the running time,
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Despite the problems with the story, the film is totally watchable thanks to a fantastic cast all working at the top of their game. Jack Lemmon's glorious performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination and Danson does some of his strongest work as John. Dukakis is splendid, as always, and young Ethan Hawke is adorable as Billy. Also loved JT Walsh as an insensitive doctor. The acting alone makes this one worth watching. 3.5

Gideon58

06-15-23, 06:08 PM

Who Invited Charlie?
Fans of films like What About Bob? and You Me and Dupree will have a head start with 2022's Who Invited Charlie?, a sporadically funny comedy about a family torn apart by an outside influence that thinks it's being cute and original, but for most of the running time, is about as predictable as they come.
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It's 2020 Manhattan at the height of pandemic where we meet Phil, a hedge fund manager who is married with a teenage son named Max. A failing business and complete paranoia about Covid-19 motivate Phil to move his family to their home in the Hamptons for awhile. Phil is surprised when his old college roommate, Charlie, who he had run into a few nights before they left New York, shows up in the Hamptons and asking if he can stay with his old roommate and his new family until the pandemic dies down.
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The film is written and directed by Nicholas Schutt and Xavier Manrique, who also wrote and directed a 2016 film I hated called Chronically Metropolitan, a film whose best quality was its title. Schutt and Manrique don't fare much better here as they attempt to bring humor to the situation of the pandemic through plotting that we've seen in other films. Personally, I'm over filmmakers trying to mine comedy out of the Pandemic because there really anything about it that was funny. For some reason, the pandemic has provided a plethora of material for stand up comedians, but so far, it has not been an effective breeding ground for feature length comedy.
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What does work here is the plotting, not so subtly borrowed from What About Bob? and You Me and Dupree, where the reunion between two old friends who had a questionable past is now affecting their present. We can practically recite the dialogue with the actors as Charlie intrudes on Phil's life and bonds immediately with Max, who doesn't utter two words until he meets Max. Of course, we then expect Charlie to go after Phil's wife, which he doesn't do directly, but he does manage to get her to overlook the fact that Charlie smoked a joint with her teenage son. There's a couple of scenic postcards where we see the main characters hiking and looking over the lake that seem to do nothing but make the movie longer than it needed to be.
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The film does feature some nice Manhattan and Hamptons location shooting, but Manrique's direction is wooden, making the film move at a snail's pace. Reid Scott, who was so funny on Veep, is terrific as Phil, as is Adam Pally, so good on the ABC sitcom com Happy Endings brings a nice Bill Murray/Seth Rogen quality to Charlie, but the movie does not sustain interest for its entire running time. 3

Gideon58

06-16-23, 06:17 PM

Klute
Jane Fonda's first Oscar-winning performance anchors 1971's Klute, a solid blend of crime drama and character study that takes a minute to get going, but it does deliver the goods.
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Donald Sutherland plays the title character, John Klute, a small town private investigator who has been commissioned to track down an old friend of his who has disappeared. The trail to finding this guy eventually leads to Klute to Manhattan, where it's revealed that his last contact was with a prostitute named Bree Daniel (Fonda), who, of course, is not exactly enthused to cooperate until other bodies continue to drop as Klute continues his investigation.
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Andy and David E. Lewis' screenplay, which earned the film its only other Oscar nomination, doesn't take the route of the traditional murder mystery and chooses an unconventional conduit with which to deliver the story. Prostitutes have been a staple of movies for a long time, but Bree Daniels was just not what we think of when we think of a movie prostitute. Bree is not stupid and she has a surprising ability to be honest about herself even if she can't always be honest with other people about it. Loved the reveal that Bree doesn't love what she does, but she is addicted to it and is unable to stop. This was also the first film I recall where I met a prostitute who is actually seeing a psychiatrist, which allows the screenwriters to create this character onscreen for us and see exactly what makes her tick. Loved the first scene with her shrink where she humbly explains why she is such a good prostitute.
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Just as the viewer starts to becomes fascinated with learning who this Bree Daniel is, the story shifts to a possible crime that Bree might have knowledge of and might be putting her in danger. I did like that John Klute was serious about what he was doing and did not fall into bed with Bree the second he met her, but the scene where they do finally connect sexually was smoking hot, well staged by veteran director Alan J Pakula, whose style is all over this movie.
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Two years after her first Best Actress nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Fonda buried the sex kitten phase of her career forever and was awarded her first Best Actress Oscar, despite being smack in the middle of the whole "Hanoi Jane" controversy. Donald Sutherland is properly icy in the title role and Roy Scheider, Charles Cioffi, and Dorothy Tristan score in supporting roles. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief appearance from an actress named Jean Stapleton, who later on that year, would create the role of Edith Bunker on the CBS sitcom All in the Family, The film keeps the viewer in the dark for a good chunk of the running time, but viewer patience is rewarded and Fonda is sublime. 3.5

Takoma11

06-16-23, 08:16 PM

the scene where they do finally connect sexually was smoking hot

I loved the staging of this scene:
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The use of the mirror, the way you see her hands grab his coat when he delivers that line.

I think I liked the film overall a smidge more than you, but it's been quite a few years and it's one I've been meaning to revisit.

Gideon58

06-19-23, 03:18 PM

Book Club: The Next Chapter
After watching the dreadful 80 for Brady, I was a little concerned about watching the similarly-themed sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter. It was better than 80 for Brady but not much.
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As this 2023 sequel opens, Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are smack dab in the middle of the pandemic and are staying in touch with each other via skype. Once the restrictions are relaxed, Vivian reveals to her girlfriends that she and Arthur (Don Johnson) are getting married. The girls decide to send Vivian off in style and decide to have a bachelorette party for Vivian in Venice.
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Bill Holderman, who produced the first film, directed and co-wrote the screenplay for this one and his lack of experience in these areas really show. Once again, the screenplay is pretty much made up of jokes about aging and sexual double entendres which grow really tired really quickly. It was a nice idea to fly the ladies to Venice, which was a big asset here. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and is a big distraction in the by-the-numbers comedy we get here. The actresses are pros but their talent can only carry this predictable and slightly dull comedy so far.
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Once again, Holderman decides that star power is his primary weapon in keeping this sequel worth sitting through. In addition to the ladies, it was nice to see Don Johnson, Andy Garcia, and Craig T Nelson reprise their roles from the first film as well. In this film, Steenburgen and Nelson are kept apart because Nelson's character, Bruce is recovering from a heart attack and Carol's whining about how she shouldn't have left Bruce alone gets old pretty quickly. Ironically, Carol does come thisclose to cheating on Bruce. I loved how that plot played out though.
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Needless to say, all the ladies have brief encounters of some sort of sexual dalliance but they're just not interesting enough to sustain the entire running time. I thought it was interesting that about 30 minutes into the film, the ladies have their luggage stolen, but that didn't stop them from costume changes every scene. And except for Vivian's wedding dress, most of the costumes the ladies wear in this film are hideous. Costume designer Stefano De Nardis must have been high throughout production.
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The performances are a matter of taste...Bergen and Steenburgen have some funny moments, but Fonda seemed afraid to open her mouth out of fear of cracking her botox. Screen legend Giancarlo Giannini, who was a Best Actor Oscar nominee for Seven Beauties, makes the most of a thankless role as a police chief who helps the ladies when they get arrested and are thrown in the biggest jail cell I've ever seen. If only real jail cells were that big. The movie is pretty, but kind of boring. I actually had trouble staying awake. 2

Gideon58

06-20-23, 06:32 PM

Batman Returns
Tim Burton provided a worthy follow-up to his surprise 1989 hit Batman called Batman Returns that provides solid entertainment, despite an overstuffed screenplay.
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The 1992 film finds Batman dealing with Oswald Cobblepot, the demented and deformed man who was thrown into a river as a child and ended up in a sewer and being raised by penguins. Cobblepot grows up and is manipulated into running for Mayor of Gotham City by a corrupt businessman named Max Schreck, who tries to cover up his dirty dealing by attempting to murder his neurotic secretary, Selena Kyle, whose alleged death is assuaged by a few hundred cats licking her back to health.
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After the monster success of the first film, it's no surprise that screenwriters Bob Kane, Daniel Waters, and Sam Hamm wanted to give us a story that's bigger and better than the first one and they do accomplish that on some level, but sometimes it just feels spread a little too thin. Truly enjoyed the detail put into the Penguin's backstory and loved the obvious comparison of his story to John Merrick in The Elephant Man, which I actually saw long before the movie actually referenced it. It was such an interesting move to have him manipulated by Schreck in what seemed to be an attempt to provide the Penguin with some sympathy, but I'm not sure why they felt this was necessary.
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And the entire presentation of the Selena Kyle/Catwoman character was nothing short of brilliant. This Selena was so severely broken when we first meet her. Loved the way she talked to herself constantly, full of self-loathing...loved when she first comes home after work and says "Hi honey, I'm home! Oh, I forgot, I'm not married." Not really clear on how being licked by a hundred cats saved her after being pushed out of a 70 story window, but it's a movie. Another thing I loved is that even after she became Catwoman, we got to see Selena Kyle again and see the Catwoman inside her.
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Burton's attention to bringing us a fresh story without rehashing the first film was on the money. Loved that the story referenced Vicki Vale, Batman's leading lady in the 1989 film. And assuming it was collaboration between Burton, the screenwriters, and Michael Keaton. I liked that Bruce Wayne was allowed to lighten up just a bit and not be so deadly serious as he was in the first film. Keaton seemed to relish this chance to bring some fun to Bruce Wayne and to Batman. I also loved that the story addressed something I've always wondered about Batman and I don't know if it's been addressed in other films, but this is the only one where I noticed it. Loved learning that Bruce had more than one Batman costume and alternated for hygiene purposes.
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If the truth be told, what kept this movie on sizzle was the insane performances by Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. DeVito made the hair on the back of neck stand up for the majority of the running time and Pfeiffer is just dazzling, creating two distinct characters in Selena and Catwoman and when it's time for the two characters to meld, they do flawlessly. The performances by DeVito and Pfeiffer added half a bag of popcorn to my rating. 4

Gideon58

06-29-23, 07:35 PM

Bruiser
2023's Bruiser is an emotionally charged family drama that had me completely engaged for most of the running time because this is one of those stories that had three sides and we understood all three sides and couldn't really decide which side we wanted to take.
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Darious is a bright and outgoing 17 year old who is beginning to examine the true meanings of masculinity and how toxic they can be at times. Darious is being raised by his loving mother, Monica and her husband, Malcolm, a no-nonsense, hard-working man who loves Darious like his own. One day after getting in a fight, Darious befriends a mysterious loner named Porter who lives in the woods and encourages Darious to stand up for himself. In the very next scene, we see Monica and Malcolm sitting in a restaurant where they are waiting for Porter, who is immediately revealed to be Darious' biological father. We are further rocked when it is revealed that Malcolm and Porter have been best friends since high school.
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Rookie director and co- screenwriter Miles Warren really scores here with a story that tells one challenging story from three very different angles that we are able to understand perfectly. The story establishes Porter as a man with a dangerous past and a propensity for violence so we understand why Malcolm wants Darious to stay away from him, but we understand that Porter has a right to know his son and that Darious wants to get to know him. Then we have the mom, who is torn right down the middle about this whole mess and complicates things even further by not being able to commit one way or the other.
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And Mom is not the only one who makes wrong moves here. All the principal characters make bad moves. Actually, one of the most infuriating moves for me was when at the beginning of the film, Malcolm refuses to buy Darious a new bike. but after Darious starts spending time with Porter, he suddenly changes his mind. Porter's behavior at the carnival wasn't right either, but Malcolm got him back for that. The other thing I liked about the story is the way Malcolm initially comes off a little soft but turns out to be anything but, just as Porter initially comes off as dangerous and crazy, but does reveal a sensitive side to his son.
Unfortunately, when the inevitable showdown between Malcolm and Porter finally happens, it's a bit of a cop out and so poorly lit we can't really see what's going on. As a matter of fact, for a movie whose dominant theme seemed to be machismo, the three fight scenes in the film were the film's weakest moments.
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The performances are first rate though. Jalyn Hall, who impressed last year as young Bobo in Till got to take center stage in this film playing Darious, delivering a performance of intensity and pathos. Trevonte Rhodes, who played the adult Chirone in the 2016 Oscar winner for Best Picture Moonlight is chilling as Porter and Shamier Anderson is surprisingly strong as Malcolm. The finale is a bit of a cop out, but until then a solid family drama that had me completely engaged. 4

Gideon58

07-05-23, 01:59 PM

Grosse Pointe Blank
John Cusack scores a direct bullseye as the star and co-screenwriter of Grosse Pointe Blank, a bloody black comedy that sizzles for its entire running time due to a razor sharp screenplay you can cut your finger on and terrific performances.
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Cusack plays Martin Blank, a hitman who is approached by a fellow hitman named the Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) to incorporate and when Blank refuses, tails Blank to his next assignment in Detroit in order to take him out while Blank decides to visit neighboring Grosse Pointe Michigan for his ten year high school reunion. Blank is reunited almost immediately with his high school obsession, Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver).
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The screenplay of this movie is based on a fantastic premise that plays out just about every one of its possibilities. What is a hitman supposed to talk about at his ten year high school reunion? And how do you rekindle a romance with a woman without telling her what you're doing now, the backbone of most reunion socialization. And how do you do your job and keep the woman you allegedly love out of danger without looping her in on what you do?
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I loved the fact that Blank has issues with what he does, evidenced in his seeing a therapist, a therapist who really doesn't want to treat Martin because Martin didn't tell him what his occupation was until their 4th session and he feels that treating Martin is putting himself in danger. Loved when Martin jokingly tells the doctor that if they don't continue working together that he knows where he lives or when the doctor starts to pick up the phone and, realizing it's Martin, drops the receiver like it's a boiling pot on the stove. The relationship between Martin and Debi rings completely true and I loved the fact that the reunion was established as one of the most boring events ever, Also loved the exploding convenience store and the clerk's reaction to it, not to mention the disposal of a body at the reunion, which we think is a precursor to the end, but it's not even close. The relationship between Martin and his assistant, Marcella (Joan Cusack) was also a lot of fun, though I seriously doubt they were brother and sister as they are IRL.
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Director George Armitage (Miami Blues) not only proves to be adept at the action sequence, but blending in the black comedy and the action film to perfect effect. Cusack's slick, smart-ass title character was perfection and though Aykroyd seemed a little old and out of shape to be playing a hitman, he made it work. Driver almost buries her English accent and Hank Azaria, Mitchell Ryan, Jeremy Piven, and K Todd Freeman also offer strong support. The late Alan Arkin stole every scene he had with Cusack as his psychiatrist and Barbara Harris makes the most of a thankless cameo as Martin's hospitalized mother. And if you don't blink, you'll also catch Cusack's other sister, Ann, in a small role. Movies like Get Shorty and the HBO series Barry owe a lot to Grosse Pointe Blank. 4

Gideon58

07-05-23, 07:39 PM

You Hurt My Feelings
There's a terrific cast led by 11-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but the 2023 indie comedy drama You Hurt My Feelings does try to cover a little too much territory as the original focus of the story gets muddier as the film progresses.
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Beth Mitchell is a writer who has been married forever to a therapist named Don and they have a 23 year old son named Eliot who works in a pot shop. Beth had middling success with her first book and is working like a dog on her next one, but is slightly discouraged when her publisher suggests she take another run at it. Beth gets a symbolic punch in the stomach though when she overhears her husband telling her brother-in-law that her new book is terrible.
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Director and screenwriter Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) has mounted a story that initially looks like it's going to be a look at the delicate egos of artists and how they hate to think anything they do isn't brilliant. We are initially amused when the script gets flipped on Don and it is revealed that he might not be the greatest therapist in the world either. We are also subjected other subplots including Eliot's anger about being coddled by his parents, Beth's mother, who is in complete denial about what appears to be Alzheimers, and her brother-in-law's frustration over his sporadic acting career.
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The scenes with Don's patients are actually very funny...I especially loved the couple who feel Don hasn't helped them in three years and are therefore demanding a refund on the $33,000 they have spent on therapy. Beth's battle with her mother over some leftover potato salad and the brother-in-law's disappointment when someone who recognized him from a movie he made years ago, politely explains that he doesn't want a selfie are also fun. Eliot's bitching and moaning about his parents turned him into a loser gets old very quickly though and helps the film seem a bit longer than it is.
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As scattered as the stories might be, the film remains watchable thanks to some wonderful performances. Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, who won an Emmy for playing Prince Phillip on The Crown are lovely as the Mitchells and Michaela Watkins garners several laughs as Beth's sister as does Arian Moayed as her husband. Fans of the HBO series Succession might recognize Moayed as Stewey on that show. Jeanne Berlin, another Succession cast member, makes the most of her scenes as Beth's senile mother. It's not a home run, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always worth watching. 3.5

Gideon58

07-06-23, 03:30 PM

Love & Mercy
Eight years after he burst onto the Hollywood scene in 2006 Best Picture nominee Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano turned in another Oscar-worthy performance in a practically unnoticed 2014 biopic called Love & Mercy, which was a slightly melodramatic, but cringe-worthy look at the inner demons that tormented legendary singer and composer Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys.
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As the film begins, we meet a present day Brian, played by John Cusack, who is trying to buy a new car and is instantly attracted to the pretty saleswoman, Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) and despite interference from his doctor, Gene Landy (Paul Giamatti), begins a relationship with her. The film then flashes back to an earlier time at the height of the Beach Boys popularity where Brian is now being played by Paul Dano. Our initial introduction to Brian reveals a serious fear of flying, but Brian's issues go far beyond a fear of flying when it is revealed that Brian has suffered serious emotional scars through his damaged relationship with his father and the evil Dr. Landy, who apparently is after Brian's money and is using Brian's mental health issues to do it.
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If it weren't for a You Tube video regarding the reasons Paul Dano has never received an Oscar nomination, I never would have known anything about this movie and that would have been a crime because Dano's performance anchors this movie and pushes anything that is wrong with it to the back burner. Wilson himself is credited as one of the screenwriters, so the weight of the facts presented here should be pretty accurate. I loved the way Brian's story is presented to the viewer with a degree of subtlety...the sequence of him freaking out on the plane and then telling the group that he doesn't want to fly anymore is designed to make us think that this is where his problems initially originate, but his fear of flying is just the springboard for a lot of issues for this talented musician that aren't anything groundbreaking really, but thanks to the back and forth between present and past Brian, Bill Pohlad's detailed and imaginative direction and the performances of Cusack and Dano, this movie is riveting right through the to the closing credits.
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Especially loved the scenes revolving around Brian's creative process, writing and arranging the music for some of the group's biggest hits. There's a terrific scene where we actually see Dano's Brian sitting at a piano creating a Beach Boys classic right before our eyes. Dano doesn't do all of Brian's singing in the movie, but he does in this scene and it totally works...and he is definitely playing the keyboard. Also loved watching Dano in the scenes where Brian does his first orchestra rehearsals for "California Girls and Good Vibrations. And just when we're getting comfortable with this talented musician, we want to cry when he's in his pool with the group and insists that they must have the meeting at the deep end of the pool, or the scene where Landy screams at him for taking a hamburger out of Melinda's hands, our heart sinks.
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I'm still blown away that this is the first I'm hearing of this movie because I found it riveting from start to finish, primarily thanks to the genius of Paul Dano, once again ignored by the Academy and the less showy, but equally effective work from Cusack as present day Brian. Banks does one of her strongest turns as Melinda and Giamatti does the strongest work I've seen from him since Sideways. It gets a little melodramatic in the final act, but Paul Dano's powerhouse performance makes this worth watching. I have to admit I don't understand the title, but a minor quibble. 4

Citizen Rules

07-06-23, 04:30 PM

Love & Mercy
If it weren't for a You Tube video regarding the reasons Paul Dano has never received an Oscar nomination, I never would have known anything about this movie... You should read my review thread🙂 I reviewed this when the movie first came out. Here's my review
https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=1390150#post1390150

Gideon58

07-06-23, 04:49 PM

Just read your review and yeah, Giamatti might have been a little over the top, but it fit the melodramatic tone of the movie. And I will admit it was confusing why Banks' Melinda stuck by Brian with the evil doctor breathing down her neck. I still really enjoyed it and Dano was SO good that everything wrong with the movie fell by the wayside.

Citizen Rules

07-06-23, 04:51 PM

Gideon58

07-06-23, 06:30 PM

Louis C K at the Dolby
Louis C K does it again in his 10th standup special, 2023's Louis C K, Live at the Dolby, which provides some of Louis' edgiest and most dangerous humor.
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The special is shot from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, which has almost exclusively been the setting for the Academy Awards since 2001. First let me get one teeny complaint out of the way. Having never seen any other special do this, I was totally thrown as the show began in the middle of a routine by another comic named Greg Hahn, who was Louis' opening act and didn't make me laugh at all during the ten minutes of screentime Louis provided for me. It was nice of Louis to do this, but it really confused me to the point where I turned off the tape because I thought I had pulled up the wrong concert. Don't do it again, Louis...the guy wasn't that funny.
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Now I can get down to business. There was something about the general theme of Louis' humor in this special that I don't recall in previous specials. It doesn't matter what subject he's talking about, every time Louis broaches a topic here, he takes things all the way to the edge of the cliff of complete offensiveness where you want to turn off the tape and then he pulls you back from the cliff just before you get so mad at him that you don't want to listen to anything else he says.
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Fortunately, with the possible exception of Eddie Murphy in Delirious, I don't think any other comic has come so close to offending me as Louis does here. Oddly, just as the moment where he starts to piss me off occurs, he somehow manages to save the story in a way that I want to keep listening and keep laughing. He does a long tirade on the homeless that pretty much had me on the floor, but I'm pretty sure someone homeless would be completely offended by some of the things he said. Loved the observation that never occurred to me before that you never see homeless at the airport.
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As he did in the last special I watched, Eddie broached the subject of abortion and, again, seems to work hard at offending but never quite does it. He really scores when he actually pulls out a Bible and offers his own personal interpretation of several stories in the Bible, with the story of Jesus killing a fig tree. Also loved his impression of Jesus carrying his cross to his crucifixion, which comes very close to crossing over into the land of bad taste, but instead had this reviewer on the floor. Louis treads some very dangerous comic waters here, but he manages to stay afloat for over 90 minutes. 4.5

Gideon58

07-07-23, 04:08 PM

The Bridges of Madison County
Clint Eastwood's meticulous direction and another luminous and lovely performance from the one and only Meryl Streep anchor 1995's The Bridges of Madison County, a sweeping and emotionally charged blend of romance and character study that slowly draws the viewer in with an irresistible and unabashedly reality that begs for a happy ending that we just know will never happen.
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Based on the 1992 runaway best selling novel by Robert James Waller, tells the story of Francesca Johnson, the Italian immigrant wife of an Iowa farmer who thinks she's content in her life on a farm with her husband and two children until the three of them take off four days to attend the Illinois State Fair in the summer of 1965. The morning after her family leaves, Francesca's is awakened emotionally when Robert Kincaid, a photojournalist for National Geographic, pulls into her driveway asking for directions to a bridge he wants to photograph. She offers to show him the bridge personally, which kicks off the most incredible four days of Francesca's life, even if she doesn't initially see it.
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Full disclosure, this was my first time watching this film in its entirety after two previous attempts where I turned it off about twenty-five minutes in. I found it too slow and couldn't stay with it. I had heard a lot of discussion about Streep's performance though and decided to give it another chance. Yes, patience is required, but boy does this movie pay off said patience. This is a beautiful blend of romance and character study where we meet two very lonely people who are lonely in completely different ways, though neither are aware of exactly how lonely they are. These are two people trapped in existences that they both need to escape from. These are two people brought together by loneliness that eventual turns to sexual heat and passion before we even realize it. Was also impressed with the hook with which we are brought into the story. Francesca has passed at the beginning of the film, revealing the entire story to be a flashback, presented in the form of a detailed book she wrote for her son and daughter to read, which he son initially can't deal with, but it helps her children understand Francesca's final wishes.
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What I really loved about this movie is the way Eastwood chooses to tell so much of the story without the use of dialogue, instead allowing his camera to tell large portions of the story. Streep offers a master class in the art of movie body language here. Watch how in the opening scenes with Eastwood she can't look him directly in the eye or that crucial and carefully crafted moment in the car where he reaches for the glove compartment and his arm brushes against her leg. Watch when he leaves the house after the first night and she runs to the door trying to figure out what to say to get him to stay but can't think of anything. Also loved the layer given to Robert's character when he witnesses the way the town tramp is treated and gives Francesca every opportunity to walk away from him and protect her reputation. The scene where Francesca receives the box from Robert after her husband died definitely had me wondering how that scene would have played if she had received that box while her husband was still alive.
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Streep's beautifully realized Francesca is the heartbeat of this movie, keeping us completely riveted to the slightly overlong story, that earned Streep her 10th Oscar nomination, though I would have nominated Eastwood's direction as well, so delicate and focused on what seems to be bringing emotions from the book that are so rarely transferred to the screen when a book makes this journey. A lovely motion picture that I suspect has some genuine re-watch appeal. 4

Gideon58

07-08-23, 01:02 PM

Tom Hanks: The Nomad
Any regular followers of my review thread know that I love celebrity documentaries and it breaks my heart to report that 2023's Tom Hanks: The Nomad is one of the worst unauthorized documentaries I've ever seen centered around one of the industry's most beloved actors.
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The film follows the typical documentary route tracing the actor from childhood to his latest work in the Wes Anderson film Asteroid City, but the presentation of the material is often nonsensical and bizarre, with the wooden narration by Josie Ellis being the tip of the iceberg.
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Truthfully, Hanks' childhood and his journey to Hollywood bears more than a passing resemblance to dozens of other actors and it was important to bring something different to the presentation to make this documentary viable entertainment. Director Jake Hickman attempts to bring some stylish elements to the direction by offering us a lot of cinematic symbolism regarding Hanks' story rather than presenting the story we came to see in a logical yet entertaining way. For 95% of this documentary, the onscreen images have absolutely nothing to do with the narration. During the section of the film talking about Hanks' first marriage to a Samantha Lewis (news to me BTW) and mother of most of Hanks' children, all we got onscreen was a lot of stock footage of Tom and Rita Wilson that we've seen a million times. If they couldn't find any pictures of Samantha Lewis, that's fine, but why barrage us with images of Hanks and Wilson that we've seen a million times?
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The film has no overall narrative going on, as we never get any footage of Tom Hanks in 2023 talking about his life and career, which would have been fascinating and exactly what this reviewer was looking for. Instead, we get interviews with Hanks that occurred during the period of life that is being discussed, over a half a dozen different interviews are utilized. It would have been so much more interesting to talk to Tom Hanks today about career and personal peaks and valleys rather than weeks or months after they happened. The presentation of Hanks here implies that director Hickman approached Hanks about doing this and for some reason, Hanks refused or was unavailable and Hicks decided to go ahead and do it anyway, haphazardly copying and pasting pieces of Hanks career together in rather lazy fashion.
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There are no interviews with actors and directors who have worked with Hanks, nor with anyone in his family, including Rita Wilson. It's an antiseptic look at a Hollywood icon that puts him on a pedestal as a Hollywood God who has done no wrong. The narration even politely glosses over Hanks bombs like The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Terminal like they didn't exist. Tom Hanks is a Hollywood icon who deserves better than this and I pray that someday a documentary is done that is worthy of him. I don't know if the Razzies have a category for documentaries, but if they do, this is a dead lock for the award. The best thing about this movie is that it runs less than an hour. 1

Gideon58

07-08-23, 05:32 PM

Kansas City Bomber
The late Raquel Welch served as star and executive producer of 1972's Kansas City Bomber, a silly, estrogen-charged sports drama that, for this reviewer, produced not much more than stifled yawns and the occasional unintentional giggle.
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Raquel plays Diane "KC" Carr, a roller derby queen for a Kansas City team who gets disgraced and must leave town and gets signed almost immediately by a team in Portland, Oregon, where she must deal with lecherous team owner who just wants to get in her pants, a mentally challenged male teammate crushing on her, and a female teammate who wants to run her out of Portland the way she was run out of Kansas.
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Right off, you should you know this review who never knew anything about or understood this sport, which here comes off something akin to the WWE on roller skates. The sport has pretty much gone the way of telephone booths and encyclopedias, but I've never understood the point of the game and also noticed it's the only professional sport that features male and female teammates and that teammates seem to beat up on each other as well as opposing teams, which I've never understood, though not sure that a more solid knowledge of this sport would have helped in my enjoyment of this film.
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Can't believe it took three writers to come up with the convoluted, cliche-ridden screenplay that tries to turn this KC Carr into a three dimensional human being by making her the guilt-ridden mother of two small children who live with their grandmother and never see KC. KC has two scenes with her children and these scenes are so underdeveloped and such an afterthought that the children and the grandmother are wearing the exact same clothing in both scenes.
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The direction is pedestrian and a lot of the camera work is headache-inducing. Welch's one-note performance is hard to gauge with her greasy hair in her face for the majority of the film and she has no chemistry with Kevin McCarthy, who plays the greasy team manager. Norman Alden has some not sure if they're supposed to be funny moments as the mentally challenged teammate and Helena Kallianiotes actually received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as the explosive Jackie Burdette. Jeanne Cooper can also be glimpsed in a supporting role, a couple of years before she became Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless. Hardcore Welch fans might find this interesting, but this reviewer found this dated and dumb. And yes, that is future Oscar-winner Jodie Foster playing KC's daughter. 2

Gideon58

07-10-23, 01:45 PM

Paint
An artist named Carl Nargle from Vermont hosted his own television show on PBS for 22 years and reruns are still airing to this day. Nargle is the subject of a 2023 film called Paint, a dull and confusing look at this bizarre artist that purports to be a biopic, but comes off more like a fictional story centered around a non-fiction character.
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In this film, we watch Nargle, as one of PBS' most respected stars, develop a small but devoted following that keeps him on the air until he starts getting serious competition from a female artist named Ambrosia, while luring just about every female crew member on his show into sexual relationships.
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Full disclosure, I knew little or nothing about Carl Nargle or his show before viewing this movie. I have run into his TV show channel surfing but have never watched more than 15-20 seconds of it, because I found the guy to be the most boring human being I've ever seen to have his own television show, so my thoughts about this guy were clearly clouded going into this film. I just found it hard to swallow that this guy was some sort of sexual Svengali who drew all these women under his spell. What did all these women see in this pipe smoking, bushy-haired artist who drove a brightly colored van equipped with a sofa bed and a police radio? I don't know how this guy actually stayed on the air for 22 years and his reruns are still being broadcast. This film never made me care about who this guy was.
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Director and screenwriter Brit McAdams has provided us with a really confusing screenplay that never really makes it clear at what time this film is taking place. Costumes and music imply the 1970's, but in one scene, we hear a woman tell Carl that her favorite TV show is Dancing with the Stars, which didn't premiere until 2005. We do get definite flashbacks to the first time Carl had sex with several women in the show, but we're told they're 20 years ago, but the settings and costumes don't look 1950's.
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I also found it really annoying the way star Owen Wilson whispered almost all of his dialogue. I had this same problem with Wilson in last year's Marry Me, but it seems deliberate here. I guess it's supposed to illustrate Nargle's indifference to other people or his inability to express anger, but this reviewer loses interest pretty quickly when he has strain to hear what is being said.
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There were two scenes that made me sit up...the scene where Carl's greasy boss, played by Stephen Root, fires him and the scene in the final reel where he defaces his paintings, but they were hardly enough to recommend this hot mess of a movie. For hardcore fans of Nargle or Wilson only. 1.5

Gideon58

07-10-23, 07:26 PM

The Best Years of Our Lives
Hollywood spent a good deal of the 1940's supporting the war effort and how it affected those directly involved. One of the best of these films was the 1946 instant classic The Best Year of Our Lives, a sweeping melodramatic epic that captivated moviegoers and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Years.
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This is the story of three men returning home after serving in different branches of the military and trying to adjust to life now that they're home, something that turns out to be more complex than they imagined. Al Stephenson is an army officer trying to reconnect with his loving wife, Milly and his kids, Peggy and Rob; Fred Derry was in the Air Force and is returning to his unhappy marriage to ex-chorus girl, Marie but finds himself drawn to Al's daughter Peggy; Homer Parrish is a sweet-natured sailor who lost his hands overseas and is afraid that longtime sweetheart Wilma is not going to be able to handle the man he is now and instantly begins pushing her away.
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Robert E Sherwood's Oscar winning screenplay, based on a novel by MacKinley Kantor, is a seamless blend of the friendship between these three soldiers and three other stories that develop through the friendship that these guys promise to keep going now that they're home and, in a refreshing change of pace, actually do it. As a matter of fact, less than 24 hours after they have reunited with their loved ones, the three do actually run into each other at a bar, where we learn about Homer's fears about Wilma, and, in addition to his troubled marriage, former soda jerk Fred must return to the job he had before the war, reporting to the guy who used to be his assistant before the war.
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The story efficiently touches upon a lot of issues regarding the military coming home, especially the difficulty in securing employment and the mixed feelings of the citizens they swore to protect and how not everyone is on board with what they did. At one point, Fred makes a supreme sacrifice to support Homer and what they did during the war. Equally impressive was the star-crossed romance between Fred and Peggy where when it is revealed that Fred is married and Peggy is aware of it, she proudly announces that she plans to break the marriage up.
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William Wyler won an Oscar for his sparkling direction of this emotionally charged story that had this reviewer fighting tears for the majority of the running time. Once again, Fredric March proves that few actors commanded the screen the way he did in a blazing performance that won him his second Best Actor Oscar. Watch his two drunk scenes because there were few actors back in the day who played drunk scenes better than March did. And watch a beautifully realized throwaway scene when March's character wakes up with a hangover...the scene utilizes no dialogue but March employs so much detail into it, that you can't help but chuckle.
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Even though she received top billing, Myrna Loy made the most of her supporting role as Al's wife and Dana Andrews has rarely been better as Fred, making major sparks with Theresa Wright, giving a performance that rivals her work in The Little Foxes and Shadow of a Doubt. LOVED Virginia Mayo's vivacious turn as Marie too. And can we talk about Harold Russell? A real life disabled veteran who is heartbreaking throughout, especially in that scene where Homer takes Wilma to his room to show her what he goes through to go to bed every night. Russell won a richly deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and an Honorary Oscar for inspiring real life veterans and I can't let this go without mentioning a small but memorable performance by the fabulous Gladys George as Fred's mother. Film editing and music also took home the gold. After the crap I've watched the last few days, a true classic that restored my passion for the art of filmmaking. 5

SpelingError

07-10-23, 11:48 PM

Yeah, it's pretty incredible.

Yoda

07-11-23, 12:16 PM

Full disclosure, I knew little or nothing about Carl Nargle or his show before viewing this movie. I have run into his TV show channel surfing but have never watched more than 15-20 seconds of it, because I found the guy to be the most boring human being I've ever seen to have his own television show, so my thoughts about this guy were clearly clouded going into this film.
Just to clarify, Nargle is not a real guy, that's just the character. The character is based on Bob Ross, but as far as I'm aware all the scandalous stuff in this movie is made up/done for laughs. More Walk Hard than actual biopic.

Personally I loved Bob Ross and he gained a cult following on the Internet thanks to a marathon stream on Twitch a few years back that introduced him to a new generation. Not the kind of thing you can watch for a few minutes and appreciate, but something that grows on you. A welcome balm compared to the hectic mish-mash we see on basically every modern show. But to each their own on that front. :)

Gideon58

07-11-23, 04:23 PM

About My Father
Movies like Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, and Nothing in Common flashed through my head while watching About My Father, an unimaginative 2023 comedy that takes a minute to get going, but eventually provides consistent entertainment, thanks to a lovely father/son relationship at its heart.
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Actor, producer, and standup Sebastian Maniscalco plays a fictionalized version of himself, a Chicago working class schlub who falls in love with a struggling artist and wealthy trust fund baby named Ellie (Leslie Bibb). Sebastian wants to propose to Ellie but wants to do it with his deceased mother's ring, which is in the tight grip of Sebastian's immigrant hairdresser father, Salvo (Robert De Niro). Salvo only agrees to give Sebastian the ring if he can meet Ellie's parents first. This leads to Sebastian and Salvo being asked to spend the 4th of July weekend with Ellie and her parents (Kim Cattrall, David Rasche) and her brothers.
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In addition to being the star of the film, Maniscolco was also co-screenwriter for this film, a story that spends close to ten minutes on backstory, explaining in detail Sebastian's relationship with his father and his courtship of Ellie which was totally unnecessary. Another inordinate amount of time is spent watching Sebastian trying to convince his dad to spend the weekend with Ellie's family. Once this is finally over and Sebastian and Salvo arrive at the family mansion, the laughs do begin to kick in, thanks to some clever character interaction and some outrageous physical comedy.
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Standout scenes included the introduction of Ellie's older brother, Lucky, and the doubles tennis game where match point is shot exclusively in slow motion. It was also sweet that no matter how mad they got each other, Sebastian and Salvo seemed to forget everything that was wrong between them when they would do their "night spritz." Loved the scene where Salvo gave Ellie's mom a new haircut, which she instantly hates. Major laughs were also provided from Ellie's younger brother, Doug, who seemed to be a not-so-subtle variation on the Todd character in Wedding Crashers.
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Director Laura Terruso (Hello My Name is Doris could have provided the film with a little more forward motion which made the movie move like a tortoise despite its running time being under 90 minutes. Two time Oscar winner Robert De Niro makes the most of every moment he has onscreen as the effervescent Salvo and he works quite well with Maniscolco, creating a believable father/son onscreen relationship. David Rasche and Kim Cattral are very funny as Ellie's parents, as are Anders Holm and Brett Dier as her brothers, but the story takes way too long to get where it's going, making it hard to stay invested at times. 3

Gideon58

07-12-23, 04:05 PM

Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who turned the art of documentary making on its ear with his 2004 Oscar-nominated film Super Size Me, takes a slightly different tack with his 2017 sequel Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken, that offers another laid bare look at another facet of the fast food industry that doesn't provide the terror the first film did, but shows more of Spurlock's style as a filmmaker and as the ultimate Flim Flam Man.
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For those who didn't see the first film, Spurlock wanted to blow the lid off the fast food industry by showing how unhealthy it is by eating nothing but McDonald's for a month, doing frightening and serious damage to his health. In this film, Spurlock stays safe personally while blowing the lid off the fast food chicken industry where, instead of eating it for a month, he decides to see what exactly goes into the business by actually opening up his own fast food restaurant, which was eventually named Holy Chicken.
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Spurlock provides an eye-opening look into this industry, starting from the ground up by purchasing a chicken farm in order to breed his won chickens for his business. As in the first film, Spurlock finds roadblocks to getting what he wants through the National Chicken Council, who are similar to Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, afraid of what Spurlock might learn. His scenes with other chicken farmers who help him obtain his first farm are engaging as we watch the whole process, from the baby chicks hatching to them being fattened up for slaughter. Some of them get so big they don't even get to the slaughterhouse. Some chickens are unable to support the weight they achieve that they actually die of heart attacks.
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In addition to some staggering statistics about the industry, the other thing I loved about this movie is that Spurlock put a lot more attention into the look of the film and the style in which the information is presented. The use of the animated chicken to show what the chickens go through was extremely effective and this animated chicken actually becomes the official logo for the restaurant, a la Ronald McDonald. Spurlock also puts a lot of attention into the music behind a lot of the scenes. The film also features Oscar worthy editing from Pierre Takal.
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Was also impressed with the way the film busted a lot of myths and broke down a lot of phrases used when marketing fast food chicken that really don't possess the meanings we thought they had. An efficient breakdown of phrases like "free range" and "humanely raised" is provided and brought home with on the street interviews with average Joes who pretend to know what these phrases mean but they really don't.
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The final third of the film brings Spurlock full circle as the ultimate Harold Hill, selling people something they really don't want, just marketing it properly so they don't know. LOVED the reveal that those grill marks we see on grilled chicken sandwiches are just painted on like makeup. The opening of the restaurant (converted from an old Wendy's) was a lot of fun as we watch Spurlock's attempt to provide some truth in advertising cover up the fact that people think they're getting something different but they really aren't. Research revealed that there are now 34 Holy Chicken stores all over the country. Spurlock knocks it out of the park here. I actually think this film is slightly better than the first one. 4.5

Gideon58

07-13-23, 02:02 PM

A Good Person
The performances by Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in the leading roles are strong, but the 2023 drama A Good Person eventually suffers from a meandering screenplay that makes an already long movie seem even longer.
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Pugh plays Allison, a young woman engaged to be married and on top of the world until she is behind the wheel in a tragic car accident that kills her future sister-in-law and her husband. A year later, Allison has lost her fiancee and has become addicted to pills but sees a possible way out with the father of her former fiancee, a recovering alcoholic.
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Zach Braff (Scrubs) wrote and directed this somber story that starts out very effectively because we're not sure what it's going to be about until the first 20 minutes of the movie are spent showing us how happy Allison is with her fiancee, so we suspect that they are going to be torn apart somehow, but Braff's method of doing it isn't what we expect. As a matter of fact, we're about halfway through the film before we learn exactly what happened between Allison and her fiancee, Nathan. This part of the film is quite riveting and has the viewer completely invested in Allison's pain.
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Unfortunately, the film does start to become muddled when Allison starts attending AA meetings but is apparently just going through the motions. The relationship between Allison and Freeman's character comes off as forced and gets even more complicated when Allison comes face to face with Ryan, the daughter of the woman who was killed in the accident. Their first meeting is quite powerful, but a few minutes later, the two are BFF's bonding at a club and trying to help Freeman accept her new boyfriend. The scene of Allison and Daniel (Freeman) bonding over model trains goes on way too long and did we really need a scene of Allison accidentally running into Nathan and his new girlfriend. There's so much going on in the second half of the film, we end up wishing the story had stayed focused on Allison's grieving and recovery process. This movie ran slightly over two hours and I swear I thought it would never end.
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Despite the muddled second half of the film, Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman are completely enchanting in their roles and make the viewer want to stick around and see what happens. Molly Shannon is quite good as Allison's mother as are Chinaza Uchu as Nathan, Zoe Lister-Jones as Allison's AA sponsor and Alex Wolff as Mark, a guy who went to high school with Allison who is reunited with her in a bar in a powerful scene early on. Braff has a good basic idea here, but he lets it get away from him. 3.5

Gideon58

07-14-23, 03:58 PM

The Family Way (1966)
Disney princess Hayley Mills was growing up even though most of her fan base was in denial about it. As she was now entering her 20's, Mills decided that her career should reflect that and began seeking out more mature roles and found a real eye opener in a 1966 comedy drama called The Family Way.
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Set in contemporary working class London, Mills plays Jenny Packer, a young working girl who has just gotten married to Arthur Fitton and moved into his parents' home with them. Wedding night jitters and perhaps the fact that Arthur's parents were sleeping down the hall might have something to do with the Fittons being unable to consummate their marriage. Unfortunately, something else seems to be going on as we learn that ten weeks of marriage have gone by without anything happening in the bedroom at night.
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Bill Naughton, who wrote the screenplay for both versions of Alfie, teamed with co-director Roy Boulting to adapt this screenplay from a play by Jeffrey Dell that takes a surprisingly intimate look at marriage that probably shocked 1960's movie audiences and to have Disney sweetheart Hayley Mills right in the middle of it all didn't help because her fans definitely didn't want to see Mills this way and the film bombed at the box office. That's a shame because this is a story that blends equal parts of pain, passion, and romance, lifting the veil on a subject that hadn't been broached in too many movies before this. Loved that the screenplay kept us in the loop of what was happening, using the word "sex" only once during the entire running time, and you know watching Hayley Mills utter the word had to send shock waves through movie audiences. The story also sends a solid message about gossip and how it can destroy lives, as news of what is happening with Jenny and Arthur gets around town pretty quickly.
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The story features a couple of interesting subplots that seem like filler, but do serve the story at hand. Not long into the story we learn that Arthur's brother, Jeffreyt, is nuts about Jenny and would gladly take her off his brother's hands if the opportunity should rise. And in a delicious plot twist I definitely didn't see coming, while the kids' parents are meeting to discuss what's going on, it's revealed that Arthur's father took his best friend, Bill, with him on his honeymoon. I had an immediate flashback to Maggie, Brick and Skipper in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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Co-directors John and Roy Boulting provide a definite intimacy and sensitivity to the proceedings and work wonders with a cast completely invested in what they're doing. Mills is quite lovely in her first real adult role and creates a viable chemistry with Hywell Bennett as the sensitive hothead Arthur. Murray Head, who came between Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday, made an impressive film debut as Jeffrey, but it's John Mills', father of the star, who would win an Oscar five years later for Ryan's Daughter, who steals the show as Arthur's father. Loved that he played Arthur's father and not his real life daughter's father. A lovely cinematic curio that fans of films like The Trouble with Angels and Pollyanna should definitely check out. Not long after this film wrapped production, Mills stunned the world when she married co-director Roy Boulting, thirty years her senior. 4

Gideon58

07-14-23, 06:32 PM

Wanda Sykes: I'm an Entertainer
Wanda Sykes returns to the stand up mic with her 2023 Netflix comedy special, Wanda Sykes: I'm an Entertainer.
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Shot in a front of standing room only crowd in Philadelphia, Wanda strolls onstage in a black shirt, jeans, and a gorgeous multi-colored jacket and offers various tirades that aren't all stemmed from her very strong political conscience.
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Like all comics returning to the mic in 2023, Wanda offers her views regarding the Pandemic and what it was like for her when she caught it and just when she was getting over it, her wife, Alex caught it. And speaking of Alex, I have to admit that some of the funniest things about Sykes' comedy are stories centered around Alex and it's not necessarily the story itself, but it's the way Sykes imitates her wife. According to Sykes' impression of her spouse, she is kind of a space cadet and is always smoking. It's amazing Sykes and Alex are still together because, if the truth be told, the impression is a little insulting and if I were Alex, I would be insulted by it. I loved when she concluded one story about Alex with "She was so shocked that she lost her accent and dropped her cigarette." Sykes talks about her kids too and was especially funny telling us why she wouldn't give Lucas a snake and why she's glad her kids are white.
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As expected, Sykes' politics take center stage and she offers heated opinions about George Floyd and the events of January 6th, serious opinions from which she was able to garner major laughs. She even talks about the drag queens that were forbidden reading in the library, an event that happened to occur in my hometown and, for some reason, suddenly made me feel very close to Wanda. She also garners major laughs when her complaints about menopause trigger a hysterically funny routine about a certain product made for men that she doesn't feel is nearly as important as finding something that will help women deal with menopause.
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An entertaining, if still slightly safe evening of comedy that was a huge improvement over her 2019 special Not Normal. And I have to admit that when I saw the title of this special, I thought it was a little pretentious, but then in the context of which it's used here, I had to take it back. 4

Gideon58

07-15-23, 05:52 PM

Moving (1988)
Fans of the Tom Hanks comedy The Money Pit will have a head start with 1988's Moving, a silly and ridiculously over the top comedy that provides sporadic laughs thanks to the late Richard Pryor and a supporting cast of familiar faces.
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Pryor plays Arlo Pear, an engineer who lives in New Jersey with his wife, teenage daughter, and his twin sons. Arlo is unceremoniously fired from his job after 15 years and is then offered a dream job that would require him to move to Boise, Idaho and all the problems the move involves.
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Screenwriter Andy Breckman (Rat Race) has provided a story that starts off in a pretty realistic vein, but as the story progresses gets sillier and harder to believe, thanks to some hard to believe coincidences and a whole bunch of "Aw, come on" moments that make it hard to stay completely invested and just when we're tempted to check out, there is a major laugh that keeps us hanging there, hoping that the story will make a 180 back to the somewhat realistic story we began with.
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The subplot of Arlo's daughter going to some unbelievable lengths to stay in New Jersey are sometimes hard to swallow as well as how her parents try to put her in her place. The scenes of his twin sons who seem to have learned long ago the advantages of being twins were amusing, even if they had nothing to do with the plot at hand. On the other hand, the crooked moving company that bullied Arlo into hiring them and the joke of what happened to the house that they bought in Boise were a little hard to believe.
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Director Alan Metter (Back To School) does manage to keep things moving so that we don't have too much time to mull over several plot contrivances that really aggravate if you actually think about them. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces including Randy Quaid, Dave Thomas, Dana Carvey, Gordon Jump, Allen Oppenheimer and Bibi Osterwald. Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Robert La Sardo are very funny as the crooked movers, as is Metter's Back to School star, Rodney Dangerfield, in a hilarious cameo as a bank loan officer. Oh, and that is Stacey Dash playing Pryor's daughter, who found her 15 minutes playing Dionne in the movie Clueless. Pryor's definitely done stronger work, but there are enough laughs to keep the viewer awake and caring about what's going on. 3

Gideon58

07-17-23, 01:51 PM

Shotgun Wedding
Jennifer Lopez adds another credit to her less than remarkable film career with an over the top romantic adventure called Shotgun Wedding, a big budget mishmash that provides sporadic laughs, but is just another enigma in the film career of Jennifer Lopez.
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Lopez plays Darcy Rivera a woman planning to marry her fiancee, Tom (Josh Duhamel) in the Phillippines. Not long after their family and friends have gathered for the occasion, the entire wedding party is captured and held ransom by a group of pirates, but somehow they manage to let the bride and groom slip through their hands, so it is up to them to save their loved ones.
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Mark Hammer's inexperience as a screenwriter really shows here, with a lot of silly and predictable material that we've seen in a million other action comedies that just falls flat here. One aspect of the screenplay that was refreshing was that it was the groom, not the bride, who was obsessed with making sure this wedding was absolutely perfect and the scene where the bride is offering her body to him to try and get him stop decorating pineapples was kind of funny. Everything that happened between Darcy's divorced parents was also unbelievably "been there done that."
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Director Jason Moore, who directed the Pitch Perfect franchise, was afforded a big budget here and does take advantage of it, but what fun there is here is provided by an all-star cast that seems to be having a lot more fun than the viewer. Lopez' performance is no different than a half dozen other characters she's played and Duhamel just looks confused through most of it. Jennifer Coolidge is very funny as Duhamel's mother and Cheech Marin and Sonia Braga make the most of their predictably written roles as Darcy's divorced parents. Singer Lenny Kravitz is also effective as Darcy's ex, but like most Jennifer Lopez movies, watchable, but nothing memorable. 2.5

Gideon58

07-19-23, 01:49 PM

Across the Universe
Fans of the 1975 Ken Russell musical Tommy and the 1979 Milos Foreman musical Hair will have a definite head start with an intoxicating 2007 musical called Across the Universe, that takes a simple star-crossed romance and makes it something purely unique thanks to striking and endlessly imaginative staging on a canvas backed by the music that changed the face of rock and roll forever during the 1960's.
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The story is deceptively simple on the surface. The story is basically a romance that develops between a young man Jude, a young man born in Liverpool who comes to New York looking for his father and a girl from wealth and privilege named Lucy and their on again off again romance. We also meet Max, a college dropout whose fatalistic decision to quit school gets him sent to Vietnam; a young lesbian cheerleader named Prudence; a landlady and rock singer named Sadie and a guitarist named Jo Jo who all end up inhabiting the same Manhattan apartment. And the whole story is told with a musical score that is exclusively made up of the greatest music of the Beatles.
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Director and co-screenwriter Julie Taymor deserves the lion's credit for this one of a kind musical acid trip that has nothing to do with logic or realism, and if you're looking for anything steeped in realism, you've definitely come to the wrong movie. To provide a basis for where Taymor's creative head is, she won two Tony Awards for directing and designing the costumes for the Broadway musical The Lion King. This is an artist who has always worked outside the box and her very specific vision for this movie shines through every frame, even though it has nothing to do with realism.
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The screenplay provides skeletal backstory for each of the main characters, just enough to bring them all together in this apartment in order to serve this star-crossed romance and provide a loving tribute to the music of John, Paul, George, and Ringo that Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band tried to but failed dismally.
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Taymor and company make the musical numbers leap off the screen, with the help of superb vocal and orchestral arrangements and some outstanding choreography. The standout numbers for this reviewer were "Come Together", which featured Joe Cocker as a homeless person in a subway station, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "Hold Me Tight" at Lucy's prom, Bono's take on "I Am the Walrus" "Something", which seemed to be a nod to the naked drawing scene in Titanic, "Strawberry Field Forever", and my personal favorite "I Want You", which was used as the background for Max's Army examination/induction, which featured spectacular choreography and set pieces, producing a striking anti-war statement with just a touch of homo erotica.
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With the tow principals being named Jude and Lucy, couldn't wait to see what Taymor was going to do with "Hey Jude" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". "Hey Jude" was a home run, but was a little disappointed that "Lucy in the Sky" was relegated to the closing credits, but a small disappointment in what was basically a riveting and eye-popping musical experience that had this reviewer chair-dancing for the entire running time. 4

Gideon58

07-19-23, 06:21 PM

Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse
Miles Morales and his multi-universal mentors return for a second round of cosmic comic book adventures in 2023's Spider-Man Across the Spider Verse, the continuing adventures from the 2018 Oscar-winning Best Animated Feature winner, which has an overstuffed screenplay, but whose technical artistry and attention to the legacy of this character cannot be denied.
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This film actually opens in a universe where Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) is actually Spider Woman and is working very hard to conceal her alter ego from her father, Lt. George Stacy (voiced by Shea Wigham) but must forsake her dad when she is needed in the universe where Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) has begun to accept his new spider skin, but his family is not so quick to do, not to mention villains from other universes who won't allow Miles to ease into the legacy of his new life the way he wants.
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The bloated screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callahan is the primary culprit in this film's succumbing to the dread "sequel-itis", the attempt to make that second film by making everything bigger, better, and more complex in order to draw in a bigger audience and more box office receipts, but it doesn't really work here because there was enough going on in the first film that we just didn't need more complications to the legacy of Miles Morales.
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What does work is the technical artistry, the detail applied to character history and respect for the Spiderman character's history in other movies. The animation is slick and frantic, providing a truly futuristic look to the story. The return to the relationship between Miles and his father (voiced by Bryan Tyree Henry) had a very realistic vein to it. Miles has now reached the manly age of 15 and his reaction to his father grounding him was very realistic and very funny. The relationship between Miles and his mother (voiced by Luna Lauren Velez) reminded me of the relationship between the Peter and his Aunt May in the Sam Raimi movies...there's a real sense here that his mom knows Miles is doing something special and important but chooses not to discuss it. The famous upside down kiss from the first Raimi film even gets a knowing wink here.
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As the 2018 film did, this film sports spectacular production values and the voice work of Moore, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara, Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown, and especially Jason Scwartzmann as the Spot is on the money. And as expected, this film very quietly and very effectively sets up a third film. 4

Gideon58

07-20-23, 03:16 PM

Dolores Claiborne
Five years after winning an Oscar for playing a Stephen King character in the film version of Misery, Kathy Bates takes on another more complex Stephen King character in 1995's Dolores Claiborne, an overheated and long-winded psychological mystery of abuse and vengeance that despite manic and undisciplined direction, remains watchable thanks to the performances by the two leads.
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Jennifer Jason Leigh takes on the role of Selena St. George, a magazine writer who lives in Manhattan, who puts her life and career on hold when she receives word that her mother (guess who) is suspected in the death of her employer and travels to the small seaside community in Maine where her mother lives. Our confusion as to Selena's initially calm exterior as she travels to Maine becomes a little clearer when it is revealed that, many years ago, Dolores was suspected in the death of her abusive husband and Selena's father.
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Tony Gilroy's adaptation of King's novel is long-winded and is often exhausting to keep up with as the story switches from the present to the past with such a lightning pace at times that it's often hard for the viewer to keep track where we are. We understand the necessity to visit the past as it is vital for understanding why Dolores the way she is and why she is suspected of murdering this woman, despite what is really circumstantial evidence. This Dolores character is actually a lot more complex than Annie Wilkes. Annie was just straight up cray cray, but Dolores is a woman whose mind, body, and soul has been worn to the nub by her extremely abusive husband and has spent decades keeping as much of it a secret as she was able to, which has resulted in her being treated like another King heroine, Carrie White.
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Director Taylor Hackford has lent his accustomed heavy hand to bringing this story to fruition, though it really didn't need a lot of assistance from him. We're almost halfway through the film before Hackford allows to see any sympathy in the character of Dolores, through revealing her backstory with her husband and the possibility that she might be innocent of this crime of which she is suspected. Selena's feeling about her mother also seem to change from scene to scene but that climactic scene where Selena finally steps up for her mother is just glorious.
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Hackford was fortunate to have two of the best actresses in the business center stage. Bates is a ferocious and full-bodied title character and Jennifer Jason Leigh brings another of her patented hot mess characters to the story, taking the story more out of the horror genre and more into psychological drama. Christopher Plummer and David Straithairn were over the top as Detective Mackey and Dolores' husband, but I LOVED Judy Parfitt as Vera Donovan. As always with Hackford films, it lacks pace and is longer than it needs to be, but Bates and Leigh are always worth watching. 3.5

Gideon58

07-20-23, 06:27 PM

Broadway Rising
The 2022 documentary Broadway Rising is an, at times, quite moving and at other times, almost snore inducing look the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on the Broadway industry that was quite fascinating for about two thirds of the movie, but when the movie goes off its intended subject, so does viewer attention span.
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Broadway is an institution that has been a mainstay of Manhattan tourism for close to 100 years and has only shut down twice: Once was right after the 9/11 attacks and the second time was on March 13, 2020 when the dangers of Covid-19 made it impossible for Broadway to operate and a $15,000,000,000 a year industry came to a complete stop for 18 months.
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Loved the way this film started as we learned that the panic on Broadway began when an usher at Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the stage door manager at the Broadhurst Theater where Little Jagged Pill was running, both started experiencing symptons of the virus. The story of the stage manager was particularly moving as we learned that the disease not only caused him to lose one of his feet, but the feeling that he may have passed the virus to his mother and may have hastened her death, but will never know for sure.
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Admittedly, I expected to hear a lot more commentary from Broadway legends about what was going on but as the film progressed, I realized that this was not what this movie was about. Though it was a little sad hearing from three time Tony Award winner Patti Lupone that when she heard about Broadway shutting down, she actually had a nervous breakdown.
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This documentary was the people we don't normally think about when we think about Broadway. This movie is about a dancer named Adam Perry who has been dancing for 20 years and was dancing in the chorus of Frozen when he contracted the virus. He is no longer dancing and works as a florist. This is about a pit musician for the show Waitress who was reduced to doing You Tube videos in her basement. It is also about an actress named Ginna Mason who spent a year playing Glinda in Wicked and because of the Pandemic, finally had time to have a baby. It was also about an actor named Nick Cordero who was appearing in Waitress and a playwright you might have heard of named Terrence McNally, who both lost their lives to the virus.
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The movie goes off its intended subject at about the 2/3 point, talking about LBGTQ rights and the death of George Floyd, but it does wrap nicely as we watch Broadway opening up again, including 4 costume designers and a dry cleaners whose over 100 employees were working again. We also heard about the producer of Six selling $2,000,000 worth of tickets thirty minutes after Broadway reopened, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to what he lost during the shutdown. For hard-core theater lovers, there is stuff to embrace here, but it did feel about six hours long. 3

Gideon58

07-21-23, 05:37 PM

Indiscreet (1958)
Twelve years after they lit up movie screens together in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman were reunited for a completely different romantic comedy called Indiscreet, which is not nearly as good as Notorious, but the chemistry between Grant and Bergman is still there.
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The 1958 comedy finds Bergman playing Anna Kalman, a rich and famous actress who has everything in the world she could possibly want...except a man. Through her brother-in-law, Anna meets Phillip Adams (Grant), a wealthy banker with whom she falls in love instantly and begins an affair with him, even though he is married.
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The absence of Hitchcock is definitely felt here, but the film still has a pretty decent pedigree. Based on a play called Kind Sir, the screenplay is by Norman Krasna, whose credits include White Christmas, Let's Make Love, and Sunday in New York, providing us a crisp and witty battle of the sexes that doesn't provide a lot of belly laughs, but had this reviewer grinning throughout as the back and forth between these two characters absolutely meant for each other is vital enough to keep us interested in what's happening. Loved the idea that Anna wasn't going to be denied her happiness just because the man was married and her bungled attempt at revenge during the finale provided the film its only real laugh out loud moments.
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Grant and Bergman are privileged to have Stanley Donen in the director's chair for this one. One of the kings of classic romantic comedy whose directorial credits include Singin in the Rain, Two for the Road, Funny Face, and Charade, doesn't mess too much with the undeniable Grant/Bergman chemistry, but uses it and the body language between the actors to tell so much more of the story than actual dialogue. Love when they're returning from their first date at the ballet and they're not saying anything but can't take their eyes off each other or the first morning where they have breakfast with each other. And pay attention to that split screen bedroom scene,, a year before Pillow Talk. What Donen does here is very subtle but it keeps what is really another photographed stage play viable screen entertainment.
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The film features lovely art direction/set direction, music, and some gorgeous costumes for Bergman. The supporting cast serve the story, especially Phyllis Calvert as anna's sister, Cecil Parker as her husband, and David Kossoff as Carl. It's no Notorious, but Grant/Bergman fans will not be disappointed. 3.5

Gideon58

07-22-23, 03:32 PM

Scream VI
The franchise that just refuses to die goes another round as Ghostface returns in Scream VI, another relentlessly bloody tale based on a 30 year legacy that still manages to blend suspense, the immediate "boo" and that tongue in cheek lambasting of the rules of horror movies that has made this franchise endure.
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The 2023 film re-introduces us to the Carpenter sisters, Samantha and Tara, who, after surviving last year's ordeal in Woodsboro have decided to start life over again in Manhattan, of all places, where Tara is trying to forget what happened last year by starting college and Samantha is deep in therapy, but when the news of two more Ghostface murders reach the Carpenter sisters, the realize it's not over.
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Loved the opening of the film, completely faithful to the franchise, as another beautiful woman is lured to her death by Ghostface, but this time it's a college professor who is teaching a film class about slasher movies, which was a bit hard to swallow, but it was excuse enough for the brutal murder that kicks off the whole show. And once again, breaking the rules of the slasher genre, this wasn't even the real Ghostface in this scene.
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The story takes a little too much time getting the Carpenter sisters on the same page but once that happens and another character explains to us what a franchise is, we only have to wait for one more thing...the appearance of one or more legacy characters to remind Samantha and Tara that they have to take what's going on. Not only do we get the return of Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), but Kirby Reed (Hayden Pennetiere) from Scream IV and Samantha's dad, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) from the original 1996 film.
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One of the original screenwriters, Kevin Williamson, has returned for this installment and his understanding of the original Scream concept is all over this...the underlying theme of explaining the slasher movie rules to the audience right before breaking them. Everything we have come to expect from this franchise happens here, but not always in the order we think, therein lies the fun of the franchise.
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There are suspense, shock, and surprise throughout, even though one plot twist takes way too long to be revealed and explained. Loved when one character learns of the twist and says, "Oh God, did I miss the monologue." The sequence on the ladder between two apartment buildings and the attack on Gale Weathers had this reviewer on the edge of his chair. Loved the scene on the subway too. Just like the previous film, the screenplay could have used some tightening, but fans of the franchise will find what they're looking for here. 3.5

Gideon58

07-24-23, 03:16 PM

Michael Clayton
A 2007 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Michael Clayton is a complex and claustrophobic legal thriller centered around someone whose personal and professional lives begin to bleed onto each other beyond his control and the identification of the source of these cinematic wounds requires undivided attention from the viewer.
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George Clooney earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his slick performance as the title character, a legal "fixer" who specializes in finding remedies for cases that might require a dance around normal legal avenues. Michael is brought on board when another lawyer from the firm is believed to have had a nervous breakdown after going off his meds, in an effort to get him off a class action suit, where the guilt of a chemical company is a certainty.
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Director and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, who is the creative force behind the Jason Bourne trilogy, has crafted an edgy and frightening state of the art thriller that doesn't answer all of the questions that it poses, but the ones that it doesn't answer become irrelevant pretty quickly. Gilroy gives the title character an added richness by providing him with a backstory that finds him teetering on the personal edge as well. In addition to his professional problems, Michael also has heavy gambling debts and the bar that he bought is about to go under. Fifteen minutes into the running time, an attempt is made on Michael's life that telegraphs the danger he's in, but does not telegraph where the danger is coming from.
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This is another of those thrillers where it's difficult to tell the black hats from the white hats but it's clear no one in this story is safe. Around the halfway point of the film, it has been established that no one in this story has any secrets...everyone involved is being followed or their homes and offices are bugged. Yes, there is a character whose doom is inevitable from his first appearance, but his elimination does move the story into a higher gear. The way Michael's life is on the edge of imploding reminded me of Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems and we wonder how close to the cliff Gilroy is going to take us.
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Gilroy provides handsome production values to the story, including some exemplary camerawork that, at times, tells the story by itself. In addition to the Best Picture nomination and Clooney's Lead Actor nomination, Tom Wilkenson's severely damaged Arthur Edens earned him a Supporting Actor nomination and Tilda Winton's morally bankrupt Karen Crowder won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack also impresses as Michael's boss. The movie is hard to follow here and there, but the final payoff is well worth it. 4

Gideon58

07-24-23, 06:45 PM

BlackBerry
Take the ABC reality series Shark Tank, mix it with the Michael Keaton biopic The Founder and throw in just a dash of The Wolf of Wall Street, and you have 2023's BlackBerry, a slick and funny look at the creative forces behind the first smartphone and how the attempted theft of their idea eventually led to their downfall.
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This film begins in 1996 Ontario where we meet a pair of techno-geeks named Doug and Mike, who with their small team of fellow geeks have started their own corporation called Rise in Motion, who are now at work at an invention that will place a computer, Wi-Fi and the internet inside a phone, a device that eventually becomes known as a Blackberry. Their first attempt to sell their idea is an epic fail, but a recently fired employee named Jim from that pitch sees the potential of the product and does his best to wrest control away from Doug and Mike.
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A relatively unknown filmmaker named Matt Johnson served as director, co-screenwriter, and plays the role of Doug claims this film is a fictionalization of actual events, which is a troubling way to go into this. It's just hard to accept fictionalization when names like Verizon, Google, and Microsoft are being thrown around, not to mention the subject is something anyone with any kind of tech savvy is familiar with. I can see if changing names to protect the innocent was the only way to get the film made, but it's not like the real people the film is based on aren't going to recognize what happens here and go after Johnson if they want to.
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I especially loved the initial introduction of the characters of Mike and Doug, two guys who put their friendship and the integrity of the company above everything. Loved that Mike seemed to be the real brain of the organization while Doug was the mouthpiece, though that does change before the story ends. It was a little sad when people were being brought in to make Rise in Motion more of well-oiled machine, the employees are upset when new work policies might eliminate movie night. Jim's manipulation of Doug and Mike put me in mind of Ray Kroc's manipulation of the McDonald Brother's in The Founder and just like in that film, Jim does get off a little easier than he should have.
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Johnson makes the most of his indie budget, but he does display some real talent with a camera and his performance as Doug brings a lot of comic relief to the proceedings, but it is an Oscar-worthy performance by Jay Baruchel as Mike and a thunderous performance by Glenn Howerton that really keep this thing on sizzle. 4

Gideon58

07-25-23, 05:34 PM

Faces
Strictly for hardcore fans of John Cassavetes, his 1968 film Faces offers little or nothing in the form of a legitimate cinematic experience, but what it does offer is some superb performances and a post graduate course in the art of filmmaking technique that found this viewer occasionally confused but never bored.
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Though calling it a story is stretching that noun beyond credibility, we are introduced to Richard Frost (the late John Marley), a movie studio executive who is married to the terribly unhappy Maria (Lynn Carlin). But after a drunken evening with pal Freddie (Fred Draper) and good time gal Jeannie Rapp (Gena Rowlands), comes home and announces to Maria that he wants a divorce, which sends Maria into a toxic affair with a self-absorbed stud named Chet (Seymour Cassel).
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Don't be fooled by the bare-bones plot synopsis because, in the grand tradition of John Cassavetes and more so than any of his other work that I've seen, this film does not follow any sort of conventional journey in presenting a story. Instead of a screenplay what we have here is five or six one act plays strung together on film that have bare bone connections to each other and all go on at least fifteen minutes longer than necessary. As each one-act meanders to its sudden conclusion, the viewer is just minutes from turning the movie off or falling asleep when Cassavetes releases from one story and allows advancement to another.
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What Cassavetes does offer us to relish in is a spectacular look at film technique, particularly the most spectacular use of the tracking shot and the hand held camera have I ever seen. His camera gets so inside the characters that it's intrusive, intrusive to the point that what we're seeing doesn't seem fictional. It doesn't feel like a documentary, it feels like a home movie, five very private home movies that are meant for the consumption of the characters only. The emotionally and verbally abusive treatment of the characters to each other, especially Richard Frost, one of the most smarmy and despicable characters I've ever seen, put me in mind of the Woody Allen film Interiors. Not sure if it was intentional and if so what the intention was, but this reviewer was fascinated by how much screentime these characters spent singing, despite the fact that none of these actors could sing or had anything to sing about. My favorite one act found one of the characters trying to commit suicide.
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I have rarely enjoyed John Marley more in what is probably the most unlikable character he has ever played and Gena Rowland offers her accustomed sparkling performance as Jeannie. Lynn Carlin makes an unprecedented film debut as the severely broken Maria, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Seymour Cassel also earned a supporting actor nomination for his sex-on-legs work as Chet. yes, I said it and I'm totally blown away that Cassel was ever this young and sexy, a performance that put me in mind of Brando's Stanley Kowalski. And if they don't blink, Bold and the Beautiful fans might recognize ex-Sally Spectra, the late Darlene Conley in a supporting role. an unorthodox movie experience to say the least, but Cassavetes fans will be in heaven. 3.5

Gideon58

07-26-23, 07:38 PM

Wildflower
Wildflower is a quirky and often squirm-worthy look at a special young woman and her very special family that is actually based on a real family featured in a 2020 documentary of the same name.
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As the film opens, we are introduced to Bea, the vivacious high school student around whom the story is based, as she has entering a hospital in Las Vegas and has slipped into a coma. As her severely dysfunctional family arrives at her bedside, Bea steps out of her body and serves as the narrator for the story of her life as the daughter of mentally challenged parents that led to her extremely unconventional lifestyle that has forced Bea to put her own dreams and aspirations on the back burner.
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Director and co-screenwriter Matt Smukler impresses as he mounts a fact-based story on a somewhat fictional canvas that is so infectious that watching the film definitely motivated this reviewer to want to check out the documentary upon which this film was based. Loved the opening flashbacks that established the relationship between Bea's parents, a sweet-natured romance that may or may not have been allowed to blossom into an actual marriage. One of the best examples of onscreen exposition I've seen in awhile. My jaw dropped when Bea's grandmother suggested that her mother be sterilized before she has a chance to become pregnant.
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Despite its fact-based origins, this film did bring a lot of other fictional films to mind, Lady Bird, in particular, which provided a similar relationship between parents and children, not to mention this is another one of those stories where the child has to be the caretaker and the parents are not necessarily aware of that. It was startling and a little heartbreaking the way Derek and Sharon, Bea's parents, always lost it whenever they heard the word "retarded", especially in the scene where Bea uses the word.
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Smukler brings a certain sensitivity to the edginess of the proceedings as well as an underlying layer of humor that kept this reviewer smiling throughout. Kiernan Shipka turns in a star-making performance as Bea and gets sterling support from Reid Scott, Alexandra Daddario, Jean Smart, Brad Garrett as well intentioned family members, Samantha Hyde as Bea's mother and an absolutely heartbreaking performance from Dash Mihok as Bea's father. It takes a little too long to get where it's going, but this bumpy journey was worth the investment. 3.5

Gideon58

07-27-23, 07:23 PM

McLintock!
I can count the number of John Wayne movies I've seen on one hand, but one that I was introduced as a kid was 1963's McLintock!, a raucous and light-hearted western comedy that almost comes off as a satire of the kind of films out of which Wayne carved his career.
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Wayne plays GW McLintock, a wealthy cattle baron who owns half the town where he lives and has always been the official peacekeeper between the cowboys, the farmers, and the Indians. McLintock rules the territory with a fair but iron fist and is fearless with the exception of one person. Katherine McLintock, GW's wife who walked out on him two years ago and is returning to town because their daughter, Rebecca is coming him from college for a visit and Katherine Wants Rebecca to return to Washington DC with her instead of living with her father.
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We are also introduced to Devlin Warren, a young ranch hand who GW fires and finds himself fighting an attraction to Rebecca and Devlin's mother, who GW has hired as his new cook and finds herself immediately squaring off with Katherine, who senses an attraction between her husband and Mrs. Warren and is having none of it.
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Screenwriter James Edward Grant has crafted an old fashioned comic soap opera on a sprawling western canvas that might try to cover a little too much territory. McLintock's position as town caretaker is established early on in the film and the constant return to this part of the story gets a little tiresome, resulting in a fight next to a mudhole and the Indians interrupting the town's 4th of July celebration, scenes which go on way longer than necessary.
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The film totally works though when it concentrates on the sexual tension between GW and Katherine, who hates to be called Kate and the similar tension between Rebecca and Devlin, despite Rebecca's insistence that she only has eyes for the wimpy Matt Douglas Jr., and the scene where Mrs. Warren stands up to Katherine is a joy. And you can't top that Taming of the Shrew-inspired finale.
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Andrew V McLagen, who also directed Wayne in The Hellfighters provides breezy direction that could have been reined in a little keeping the film from being as long as it is. Wayne and his favorite leading lady, Maureen O'Hara, light up the screen like they always did as GW and Katherine and Stefanie Powers makes an impressive film debut as Rebecca as does Wayne's son, Patrick as Devlin, the first of nine films that he would make with his father. Yvonne DeCarlo is terrific as Mrs. Warren and Jerry Van Dyke makes the most of his role as Matt Douglas, as do other screen veterans like Chill Wills, Jack Kruschen, Strother Martin, Edgar Buchanan and Bruce Cabot. It's not considered top-tier John Wayne, but I like it and it still made me laugh 60 years after its release. 3.5

Gideon58

07-31-23, 01:44 PM

Mafia Mamma
Toni Collette is one of my favorite actresses and it is her performance in the starring role that sustains interest in 2023's Mafia Mamma, an over the top and often unfunny movie featuring an all over the place screenplay that never really pinpoints exactly what this movie is supposed to be.
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Collette plays Kristen. an advertising executive who has just lost her job, is separated from her cheating husband and smothering her college bound son, who travels to Italy when her grandfather dies and ends up inheriting her grandfather's position as a mafia crime boss.
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Three writers were actually involved in the construction of this often hard to swallow story that is not sure if it's supposed to be a Mel Brooks-type satire of mob movies, a female empowerment/character study, or the Eat Pray Love romance that the central character claims she is looking for. We never really buy Kristen's initial naivete about who her grandfather was , despite the running joke that she has never seen The Godfather. This part of the movie felt like a satire. But then all the male characters start screwing Kristen over and turning her into this reluctant symbol of female empowerment who at the beginning of the movie was worried that her son had enough trail mix for his road trip to college. Throw in her attempt to take her grandfather's attempt to take her grandfather's business legit through a new wine and we're just not sure what the intent is here.
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The film does take a little too much time setting up what a crap storm Kristen's life is before she gets to Italy, but that is forgivable. It's the fact that once she arrives in Italy and is introduced to her new family, it takes her what seems like forever to catch onto what she's gotten herself into. This silliness is only made tolerable by the presence of one of the best actresses in the business in the title role. Collette is a little more affected than usual here, but she's still a stronger screen presence than 90% of the actresses out there who can makes us believe just about everything her character is feeling.
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Collette gets strong support from Monica Bellucci as Bianca and especially Eduardo Scarpetta as the heavily tattooed Frabizio, this story's version of Sonny Corleone. Lovely Italian scenery is an asset, but the whole thing is just hard to believe and goes on way too long, despite the presence of Collette. No surprise that Collette is also billed as the film's producer. 2.5

Gideon58

08-01-23, 03:20 PM

Baby Doll (1956)
Five years after they collaborated on the original film version of A Streetcar Named Desire,playwright Tennessee Williams and director Elia Kazan reunited for Williams' first work written directly for the screen, a sizzling psycho-sexual melodrama called Baby Doll.
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Carroll Baker steams up the screen in the title role in this 1956 film, playing an emotionally immature but sexually uninhibited 19 year old child bride, who has refused to consummate her marriage to the much older Archie (Karl Malden) until her 20th birthday, which is making Archie crazy as well as the town laughing stock because everyone in town knows what's going on. Things get even more complicated when a wealthy business owner named Silva Vaccaro (Eli Wallach) accuses Archie of burning his business to the ground and has no qualms about going through Archie's nubile young bride to get restitution.
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From the second Kenyon Hopkins' jazzy score begins backing up the opening credits, we know we're in for another sexually charged story from the always unconventional Tennessee Williams, who was especially enamored with stories about romances between characters who had a vast difference in their ages. We also know exactly what's going on when it's established that this married couple are in separate bedrooms and Archie is observed drilling a hole in the wall so he can watch his child bride, who actually sleeps in a crib, sucking her thumb. That first shot of Baby Doll in that crib sucking her thumb is one of the most erotic images I've ever seen so I'm pretty sure it was quite shock to 1956 movie audiences.
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But it's not just this opening shot of her in a crib, it is the Baby Doll character that keeps this movie explosive and rife with a sexual tension I haven't seen in awhile. This Baby Doll knows that she is a sexual dynamo and even though she doesn't want anyone touching her, she loves it when all eyes are on her. Love when Archie is waiting for her to go with him to the doctor and she's standing on the porch giving onlookers a chance to admire her. But that's nothing compared to what happens when she encounters Vaccaro and seems more than willing to offer him everything she's been denying her husband for months.
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The film received four Oscar nominations. Carroll Baker, in her third feature film appearance, was nominated Best Actress, Eli Wallach's thunderous performance earned him a Supporting Actor nomination and I have found myself saying this about every Eli Wallach performance I've seen, but I've never enjoyed him more. Mildred Dunnock received a Supporting Actress nomination for her crazy Aunt/Housekeeper and Williams' received n Original Screenplay nomination. If you loved A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, you'll love this too. 4

Gideon58

08-02-23, 01:38 PM

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume's runaway bestseller finally comes to the screen and turned out to be a pleasant surprise. 2023's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is a funny and charming look at the pre-teen years that hasn't been examined so accurately since Eighth Grade. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who didn't read Blume's book.
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Margaret Simon is an 11 year old girl who is moving from Manhattan to a New Jersey suburb because of her father's job. This move has come at a crucial juncture in Margaret's life that sends her a journey of self-discovery that covers everything from her confusion about religion (Mom is Christian and Dad is Jewish) to the anticipation/terror regarding female puberty.
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Prior to watching this movie, my only exposure to the book was when it was revealed on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace that the main characters bonded over it in college, so I really had no idea what to expect. The 2018 Bo Burnham film Eighth Grade kept flashing through my head as the film unfolded because it so reminded me how much is going on with a child's mind and body at this age and being in the sixth grade sucked just as much as the 8th grade did.
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There was a lot that I could relate to in this film, even as a male. The confusion regarding religion was something I definitely went through, even if it might have been for different reasons than Margaret. Loved the joy expressed by Margaret's grandmother, beautifully played by Oscar winner Kathy Bates, when Margaret asks if she can attend Temple for the first time and the dinner party with the whole family where Margaret's grandparents vie for her soul crackled with the appropriate tension. And I don't know why, but I also understood the priority that Margaret and her new friends put on getting their period and Margaret's panic when everyone was getting theirs before her. Liked that part of this plotline was the tall, over developed girl who looked years older than sixth grade. Wish a little more screentime could have been devoted to Margaret's sweet first romance with an adorable kid named Moose, but a minor quibble.
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Director and co-screenwriter Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen) establishes a 1970's canvas without pounding us over the head with it. I liked the way the music always stayed in the background and never overpowered what was going on screen. Abby Ryster Forston lights up the screen as young Margaret and Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie are charming as her parents. Elle Graham and Aidan Wojtak-Hissong are also fun as Nancy and Moose, respectively, but frankly, Bates just about steals this movie, which wasn't an easy feat because, to my surprise, just about everything here worked. 4

Gideon58

08-03-23, 06:27 PM

Bananas (1971)
For those of you not old enough to remember a time where Woody Allen's personal life wasn't making headlines nor was he making movies about getting away with murder and don't don't remember a time when all Woody wanted to do was make moviegoers laugh, you might want to check out a 1971 comedy called Bananas.
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Woody plays Fielding Mellish, a nerdy products tester who finds himself immediately attracted to a political activist named Nancy (Louise Lasser) who is concerned about the war torn country of San Marcos, in disarray since the assassination of their president. Shortly after they begin dating, Nancy breaks up with Fielding for no specific reason, which motivates Fielding to travel to San Marcos, where he is initially considered a serious threat but eventually ends up being elected president of the country!
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Needless to say, if you're the kind of moviegoer who likes their comedy based in some sort of realism, you've obviously come to the wrong movie. Actually, the opening scenes establishing who Fielding is are kind of realistic and very funny at the same time. The scene on the subway (which features an early appearance by unknown actor named Sylvester Stallone) and the scene where Nancy dumps Fielding are hysterically funny and delightfully human. However, once Fielding arrives in San Marcos, all reality falls to the wayside and Woody goes strictly for laughs, whether or not they are believable or require any thought on the audience's part. The scenes of Mellish being trained to be a soldier and where he goes into a diner and orders take out for 1000 soldiers are too funny.
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And for you youngsters reading this, let's talk a little about Louise Lasser. Before there was Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton, the first cinematic muse of Woody's life was a nasal-voiced actress named Louise Lasser, who had her fifteen minutes about six years later as the star of a sitcom that became a cult classic called Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. She has the same kind of goofy chemistry with Woody that Keaton and Farrow did and we totally believe their cockeyed romance.
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Woody does give the film an air of authenticity filming in New York and Puerto Rico and employs some first rate camera work, including some terrific tracking shots. The music by Marvin Hamlisch, who four years later scored big composing the music for the Broadway musical A Chorus Line, is a big plus too. Some familiar faces pop up in the supporting cast including Howard Cosell, Charlotte Rae, Rene Enriquez, and Roger Grimsby, but it's Woody's propensity for physical comedy and his sharp writing that are the real stars here. 3.5

Gideon58

08-04-23, 03:59 PM

Sympathy for the Devil
Fans of the 1984 cult classic The Hitcher might have a head start with 2023's Sympathy for the Devil, an overheated psychological thriller that does feature some stylish directorial flourishes and strong performances from the leads, but suffers due to a convoluted story that takes way too long to reveal exactly what's going on.
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The setting is contemporary Las Vegas where we meet a man named David (billed as "The Driver) who has just pulled into a hospital parking lot in order to be with his wife who is giving birth to his second child. Before he can get out of the car, a stranger (billed as "The Passenger") gets in the back seat and forces David at gunpoint to drive him to neighboring Boulder City, but this is a ruse leading to an elaborate game of cat and mouse that leaves a whole bunch of dead bodies in its wake.
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Screenwriter Luke Paradise is the main culprit here, constructing a story that comes together way too slowly and pretty much evoked one emotion from this reviewer and that was anger. We're pretty sure this poor guy David hasn't got a prayer when the passenger mentions Boulder City about a third of the way into the film and it is never mentioned again. The passenger keeps asking the driver all these questions that it's obvious no matter what the driver says. he's going to be wrong.
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Then I thought about the title of the movie and thought that the Passenger might be some human form of the devil, like Daryl Van Horn in The Witches of Eastwick and that he wanted the driver's soul for some reason, but if that were the case, there would have been no need for the senseless murder of so many innocent people. That's the other thing I hated about this movie...I don't mind when movie characters die, especially if they have it coming, but most of the deaths in this movie were of innocent bystanders.
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Director Yuval Adler does display real flair with a camera, with a special affinity for slow motion that helps a little bit with viewer anger and impatience but not enough. Nicolas Cage offers an over-the-top actor's studio type performance as the passenger that seemed to be a cross between his characters in Face/Off and Vampire's Kiss, but Joel Kinnaman is terrific as the driver but both actors are working with a really dumb story. 2

Gideon58

08-05-23, 02:06 PM

Roustabout
Even with a movie legend as one of his leading ladies, Elvis Presley's 1964 musical Roustabout is nothing to write home about.
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Elvis plays Charlie Rogers, a hot-tempered, motorcycle-riding nightclub singer who loses his job after getting into a fight. He almost immediately finds another job singing for a traveling carnival, run by Maggie (Barbara Stanwyck) and her alcoholic manager John (Leif Ericksen). Despite the fact that John hates Charlie from the minute he meets him, that doesn't stop Charlie from falling for John's pretty daughter, Cathy (Joan Freeman).
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I guess the novelty here was supposed to be the pairing of movie icon Stanwyck with Elvis. Stanwyck probably needed the work at the time and everyone was jumping on the Elvis bandwagon at the time. Unfortunately, the pairing did not generate the heat that people were hoping for. Stanwyck does put some effort into making Maggie likable, but she and the Pelvis really had no chemistry. The only female Elvis generates any chemistry with in this movie is the always watchable Sue Ane Langdon, who plays a phony fortune teller, but she and Elvis only have about five minutes of screentime together. And though his character rides a motorcycle, Elvis looks terrified every time he gets on the thing and in the long shots, you can tell it's a stunt double on the bike.
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Elvis does get to sing some nice songs including "Poison Ivy League", "Wheels on y Heels", "One Track Heart", "It's a Wonderful World", "One Track Heart", and the jazzy "Little Egypt". They are pleasant enough diversions, but there's no "Hound Dog" or "Can't Help Falling in Love" here.
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Director John Rich, who later made a name for himself directing a lot of the CBS sitcom All in the Family, provides little imagination in the mounting of the story, but familiar faces do pop up in small roles, including Pat Buttram, Jane Dulo, Kent McCord, Teri Garr, Jack Alebertson, and in her official film debut, a young actress by the name of Raquel Welch. For hardcore Elvis fans only. 2.5

Gideon58

08-05-23, 04:55 PM

Still: A Michael J Fox Movie
Hands down, the best movie I've seen this year thus far, 2023's Still: A Michael J Fox Movie is a riveting and heartbreaking look at the five time Emmy winning actor and the effect that Parkinson's Disease has had on his life. This movie not only works because of the devastating subject matter, but to the imaginative presentation of this man's extraordinary life.
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Like last year's Val Kilmer documentary Val, this film is not an easy watch. The images of Alex P Keaton and Marty McFly are a distant memory because this is just not the guy we grew up with. It's not just the trembling hands anymore...Fox is having trouble walking now and finds himself walking into walls and even broke his hand so severely that he had to have pins put in it. There's a scene of he and director Davis Guggenheim are leaving his home and he is recognized by a fan and right after they finishing talking, he looses his footing and falls flat on his face.
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Guggenheim has done an extraordinary thing here. He has not only documented where this disease has taken Michael J Fox today, but he has managed to provided a thorough look at his childhood and his career, but not using the typical documentary methodology. He not only uses actors to play Michael and various other people in recreations of parts of his life, but he has also managed to incorporate clips from several of Michael's films into the narrative of the film. Guggenheim manages to include clips from Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, Casualties of War, Mars Attacks!, Bright Lights Big City, For Love or Money, and The Secret of My Success in telling Michael's story, not just showing off his resume.
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Of course, a solid part of the film is spent talking about Fox's wife of almost 30 years, Tracy Pollan and how this has impacted her life. I loved when he reveals that when he first told Tracy about his diagnosis, her reply was "In sickness and in health, remember." His guilt about working all the time while Tracy was taking care of his children was apparent and will never go away, as was the relief when he began working on Spin City, which allowed him to be home more. Of course, it was during Spin City that he first began experiencing his first hand tremors. The most heartbreaking moment in the film for me was when Fox confessed that he felt that this disease is some sort of cosmic payback for all the success he has had. BTW, did you know that Fox auditioned for the role of Conrad Jarrod in the movie Ordinary People? He said he was terrible and that Robert Redford was flossing his teeth the entire time.
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We don't get a lot of interviews with a lot of other people about Michael, but we do get a look at Tracy and his family, as well as a look at his regular visits with doctors and physical therapists. This disease has taken its toll on Michael. He has a visible bag under his left eye where we watch a makeup artist try to conceal to no avail. I'm just speechless, this movie broke my heart. The movie has been nominated for seven Emmys. 5

Gideon58

08-07-23, 04:22 PM

Inside Llewyn Davis
Joel and Ethan Cohen almost bring it all the way home with a musical character study from 2013 called Inside Llewyn Davis that heaps a lot on its central character, but it's still a pretty compelling journey.
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The title character (beautifully played by Oscar Isaac) is a folk singer trying to eek out a living in Greenwich Village during the 1960's who is trying to revive a career that turned its back on him many years ago. He had a partner with whom he recorded a pretty successful album, but since his partner's passing, Llewyn's career as a singer is circling the drain and he's thinking about a return to the Merchant Marines.
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The Coens' screenplay is rich with 1960's atmosphere and it is unapologetic in showing exactly what folk music was during this time. The music had its fans, but there was no real money in this particular musical genre. Think about it, other than Peter, Paul, and Mary, there were no real folk music superstars and this movie drives that point home. Llewyn's career is so catch as catch can right now, that he literally doesn't have an address and spends the majority of his time between the rare gig sleeping on friends' couches. As for the one album Llewyn made with his partner, there is a scene in the movie where Llewyn encounters a warehouse full of copies that were never sold.
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We already understand that Llewyn has hard time keeping his singing career viable and we feel for him, but the screenplay continually offers tiny glimmers of hope for the guy and taking them away from just as quickly. A major vignette in the story involves Llewyn getting a job in Chicago that would involve him sharing gas and expenses with an aging musician/junkie, gloriously played by John Goodman and his mysterious friend/driver, Johnny (Garrett Hedlund), whom I was pretty sure we were going to learn had murdered someone, went all kinds of places I didn't see coming.
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Certain things did keep me riveted to this sad and funny movie...it's gorgeously photographed and an economic screenplay that didn't feel the need every moment of Llewyn's past before the story unfolded, especially his relationship with a nasty ex (Carey Mulligan), who might be carrying his baby and how his partner died. The songs are pleasant enough, especially "Fare Thee well", "The Ballad of Queen Jane", and "Hang Me, "OH Hang Me". It should also be mentioned that Isaac is doing his own singing and has a terrific voice. Fans of the Cohens will be right at home here. 4

Gideon58

08-08-23, 06:27 PM

Showing Up
Despite the accustomed splendid performance by five time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams in the starring role, 2022's Showing Up is a flat and pretentious character study that might require toothpicks for the eyelids.
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Williams plays Lizzy, a sculptor and premature spinster who is freaking out because she has a show in a week and nobody seems to care. Primarily conflicts in Lizzy's life currently are trying to keep the peace between her divorced parents, keeping track of her mentally-challenged brother and her contentious relationship with Jo, a fellow (or rival) artist and Lizzy's landlord.
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Can't express my disappointment with this film because it was directed and co-written by Kelly Reichardt, who directed Williams in one of my favorite movies of hers, Wendy and Lucy, so I don't know what went wrong here. Lizzy and Wendy are both social outsiders and are trying to survive all alone in the world, but what goes on with Lizzy in this movie just wasn't terribly interesting.
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Lizzy sculpts miniature figures, mostly female, an abstract variation on Barbie if you will. Both Reichardt and Williams work very hard at showing the audience how demanding and delicate the art of sculpting is, and as much as we want to, we just don't care. There's one scene, between 5 and 10 minutes in length, where we see the arm fall of one of Lizzy's sculptures and we watch her re-attach it, that put me to sleep.
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The relationship between Lizzy and Jo is probably the most interesting part of the movie because there is so much tension in this relationship that the audience senses immediately. Apparently, Lizzy has no hot water in her apartment for weeks and Jo hasn't been able to squeeze it into her schedule. Jo does find time to bring an injured pigeon to nurse back to health and as soon she gets home, asks Lizzy to watch the bird for her. Lizzy looks at Jo like she's just been asked to cut off her right arm.
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Reichardt's direction is rather pedestrian and other than Williams, the supporting performances are nothing special. It should be noted that her dad is played by Judd Hirsch, who would work with Williams again on their next film The Fablemans, but believe me, this is no The Fablemans. Hong Chau, nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for The Whale is a lot of fun as Jo. 2.5

Gideon58

08-09-23, 02:38 PM

The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Following their triumph together in Best Picture nominee Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton again knocked it out of the park with their lusty and sumptuous version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew that has so much going for it, but what we go away with is the white hot chemistry between these two great stars.
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For the uninitiated regarding one of the Bard's most celebrated works, in ancient Padua, a wealthy student named Lucentio arrives in order to romance Bianca, the fair young daughter of Baptista, who will not allow Bianca to marry until his older daughter, the shrewish hellcat named Katherine, marries first. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of takers despite the dowry being offered by Baptista. Lucentio and Hortensio, another guy who's nuts about Bianca approach Petruchio, a fortune hunter from Verona, to woo and wed Katherine.
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I had to grin when during the credits we learned that screenwriters were Paul Dehn and Susso D'Amico "with acknowledgements to William Shakespeare", which was pretty funny since most of the dialogue is taken word for word from Shakespeare's work, even though there are some alterations in the story, they do work to the film's advantage. The original story spends a little more time with Bianca and her numerous suitors than this film did, I guess the change was made because they wanted the film to be more focused on the Burtons...very smart move.
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It was a smart move because the off-the-wall, burn-a-hole-in-the-screen chemistry between Taylor and Burton that makes this movie sizzle. It may have been a different kind of chemistry, but Tracy and Hepburn might have been the only couple who challenged these two for making their movies appointment viewing just because they were in them. They're not all masterpieces but the eleven films that the Burtons made together should be watched, re-watched, studied, and revered.
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This film takes a little too much time setting up the story, but once Taylor's Kate and Burton's Petruchio meet, almost 40 minutes into the film, it goes into the entertainment stratosphere. From probably my favorite movie wedding scene ever, to Petruchio's starving of his bride on her wedding night, to the journey there which finds Kate wading through mud in her wedding dress, this movie provides absolutely delicious entertainment throughout. I've seen other versions of this story and there's one thing about this story I have never understood and hoped I would find an answer here: We know that Petruchio is doing this for the dowry but why does Katherine agree? To help Bianca? She hates Bianca, but as I often do, I let it go in favor of the big picture, and what a great picture it is, even if it isn't exactly a study in political correctness or a shining endorsement for the Me Too movement, so be warned.
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Even though they might be a tad too old for the roles, Taylor and Burton create another onscreen couple as entertaining as George and Martha. Burton is especially dazzling and Taylor works hard at covering up the fact that the role is a little immature for her. Michael York impresses in his third feature film appearance as Lucentio and Michael Hordern is a lot of fun as Baptista. Natasha Pyne was a little vanilla as Bianca, but since her role was reduced I guess it didn't matter much more. Franco Zeffirelli's direction is perfection. The IMDB reveals that Zeffirelli said making this movie was the most fun he had in his life and it shows. The film was remade as a ballet in 2016 and in 1948 it was turned into a Broadway musical called Kiss Me Kate, which came to the screen as an MGM musical in 1953. It was also remade again in 1999 with teenage leads and called Ten Things I Hate About You, but I'd stick to the original on this one. 4

Gideon58

08-10-23, 06:25 PM

Back to the Future Part II
After watching the heartbreaking Michael J. Fox documentary Still, I was motivated to finally finish this trilogy which I've avoided for a long time because I've heard bad things about the other two films, but I am pleased to report that 1989's Back to the Future Part II flourishes from "Sequel-itis", something that kills most sequels, but it works here thanks to the genius that is Robert Zemeckis.
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For those who saw the first film, the final five minutes are recreated in which we learn Marty (Michael J Fox) has to go back to the future because something has to be done about his kids. Unexpectedly, that part of the story wraps pretty quickly, but a visit to the future forces Marty to stay a little longer because he learns his father's old bully, Biff Tannen (Thomas F Wilson) is Hillsdale's wealthiest citizen, now married to his mom, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), thanks to an act of thievery by Biff that Marty and Doc Brown (Christopher Brown) can only stop by, once again, returning to 1955 and the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.
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Bouquets to Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale for coming up with a richly complex screenplay that does require the viewer to have seen the first film and incorporates most of the events that happened in that film into this one. The connections to the first film are not random and contrived and affect the outcome of everything that happens in this film. Initially, it's a little confusing, but I found myself getting caught up in the confusion and being part of it, and I think a lot of that has to do with the way what happened in the first film is integral to what happens in the second film without rehashing the first film. This story also required the principals to play basically three different versions of their characters.
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I won't lie, there are minor problems with the story that provided unintended giggles but didn't deter from my enjoyment of what I was watching. Of course, I couldn't help but be amused by the fact that the film was set eight years ago and yet Hillsdale now looked like a Jetsons cartoon complete with flying cars, hover boards, and giant movie holograms that attack people on the street. And it may seem like a nitpick, but I found it hard to swallow that the scores of every major sporting event from 1950-2000 fit inside a book about the size of a comic book. It was also kind of annoying that when Doc originally shows up to get Marty, he explains the urgency, but tells him he can't talk to anybody, touch anything, change anything, or even be seen by his 2015 self...how can he save his children or anything else if he can't do anything/
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Needless to say, the movie is a technical wonder. The production design is insane and the Visual Effects actually earned an Oscar nomination. Even with all the technical wizardry present, Zemeckis gets terrific performances from the cast, all required to triple the work they did in the first film, with a special shout out to Thomas F Wilson, who recreates three very distinct characters in 2015 Biff, 2015 Griff, and 1955 Biff. One of the best surprises I've had at the movies in a long time, a sequel that stands up proudly to its predecessor. Hope the third one is as good. 4

Citizen Rules

08-10-23, 06:50 PM

Wow, I can't believe you've never seen Back to the Future Part 2 and 3. Glad you liked Part 2 so much. I like all 3 of them.

Gideon58

08-11-23, 01:52 PM

No Hard Feelings (2023)
An effervescent, sex-on-legs performance by Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is at the center of 2023's No Hard Feelings, an improbable but engaging romantic comedy that is not big on originality, but the star makes you care about what's happening.
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Lawrence plays Maddie, a bartender and Uber driver who lives on Long Island but is in danger of losing her house and her car. She actually finds an ad on Craig's list from a wealthy couple offering a Buick Regal to a woman in her mid-20's who will "date" their socially awkward son, Percy, and get him to come out of his. And, well, you can probably guess the rest of what happens.
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Director and co-screenwriter Gene Stuptnitsky, who was part of the writing team for the NBC sitcom The Office has concocted a story that is probably every 17 year old's dream and reminded me of a lot of comedies from the past, including Failure to Launch, .I]Class[/I], My Tutor, The Girl Next Door, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but still manages to establishes its own comedic credentials with its casting of the Oscar winner in the starring role and her complete investment in a role that allows the actress to run the gamut.
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The story finds the star doing a lot of physical comedy, which is something I don't think of when I think o Jennifer Lawrence but she pretty much nails all of it. I loved her trying to maneuver uphill on a pair of roller blades, draped on the hood of a car, and having a fight on the beach with three strangers while she's completely nude. But then, we get to see every bit of vulnerability the actress can muster when she is moved by the young man serenading her on the piano in a crowded restaurant. This is where Stupnitsky has us exactly where he wants us and then throws us a wicked curve ball that pulls the couple apart and we wonder if we're ever going to get a happy ending.
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Haven't enjoyed Lawrence onscreen this much since Silver Linings Playbook and her gift for light and physical comedy was a pleasant surprise. Newcomer Andrew Barth Feldman holds his own against Lawrence though, displaying some genuine acting chops here. Also making the most of their screentime were Natalie Morales and Scott MacArthur as Maddie's BFF's and Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti as Percy's parents. It could have moved a little more quickly than it did, but Lawrence demands viewer attention. 3.5

Gideon58

08-12-23, 02:19 PM

Fat City
Gritty direction by the legendary John Huston and some exceptional performances make the 1972 cult classic Fat City worth a look.
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Based on a novel by Leonard Gardner, this is the story of two guys who are losers but don't really know it. Tully (Stacy Keach) is 30 years old and has been away from the ring for years for many years and we're not really given much insight into why. Ernie (Jeff Bridges) is 19 years old and our first glimpse of him murdering a punching bag in a YMCA gym has him looking unstoppable, but then he gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant.
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Gardner was allowed to adapt his own book into a screenplay and provides us with a character driven story rich with a pathetic factor that actually draws the viewer in without even realizing. As pathetic as Tully and Ernie are, Huston and Gardner make us care about them and make us hope for something better for them. Tully's envy and jealousy when he first sees Ernie in the gym is almost heartbreaking to see and his attempt to intimidate the kid right after they meet is equally sad.
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Huston and Gardner provide us with a much uglier look at the world of professional boxing than the Rocky franchise, would begin a mere four years later. And it's not just Tully and Ernie either...we get glimpses of several young men looking to be the next heavyweight champion. Loved the 15 year old black kid offering all kinds of unsolicited advice to Ernie before his fight and the next time we see him, his cheek is swollen like a bowling ball. We see it's over for Tully when he becomes involved with a drunken floozy he moves in with after her boyfriend. Lover the scene where he is trying to cook dinner for her and she's fighting him tooth and nail. When he opened a can of peas and just dumped them on the plate, I lost it..
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I had forgotten Stacy Keach was ever this young but he gives a riveting performance and Bridges holds his own as poor Ernie. Susan Tyrell's drunken Oma dominates the screen whenever she's on it and her work earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Nicholas Colasanto was terrific as Tully's coach as was Candy Clark as Ernie's girlfriend. Not for all tastes, but Keach and Bridges fans should find something to revel in here. 4

Takoma11

08-12-23, 07:47 PM

Great review. I really loved Fat City and Tyrell's powerhouse performance in particular is what stands out to me and what I most remember from the film.

Gideon58

08-14-23, 02:28 PM

They Cloned Tyrone
The creative force behind Space Jam: A New Legacy brings us another strange offering with 2023's They Cloned Tyrone, which seems to be what would happen if Quentin Tarantino attempted to write a science fiction film.
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Fontaine is a drug dealer who has just left a pimp named Slick Charles and his # 1 girl Yo Yo to collect the money that Charles owes him. As he leaves Slick's hotel room, Fontaine is shot and killed by a rival drug dealer, but wakes up the next morning like nothing happened. Fontaine assumes that it was just a nightmare until he confronts Slick and Yo Yo, who are blown away because they saw Fontaine get shot and die.
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Director and co-screenwriter Juel Taylor really reaches for the stars here like he did with that Space Jam sequel, but his reach isn't quite there yet. Once again, like he did with Space Jam: A New Legacy, Taylor has let a really promising idea get away from him to the point where he completely alienates the viewer. We see what is initially going on with the multiple recreations of the events the day Fontaine died, which was the foundation for Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, but as events are recreated here, we're expecting some sort of supernatural explanation to what's going on rather than the government conspiracy that finally comes light. And not only does what's going on take forever to come to light, what comes up is racially offensive.
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It's hard to get behind a government conspiracy that is allegedly supposed to help black people, but we are also supposed to accept that they asked for it? That they needed it? That this is the only solution to a problem that is never really verbalized. It reminded me of another movie a few years ago called Sorry to Bother You, whose initially troubling premise was that if black people were to survive in this world, they would have to learn how to act white.
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Less than stellar production values didn't help. The first 20-30 minutes of the film were really poorly lit and I had to turn on the closed captioning for the final 15 minutes of the film because I couldn't hear the bad guys telling us why they were doing what they were doing. The performances were mostly overripe though I did like Oscar winner Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles and Keifer Sutherland as Nixon. Juel Taylor again displays some talent as a filmmaker, but he's just not there yet. 2.5

Gideon58

08-15-23, 01:28 PM

The Iron Petticoat
Don't know what MGM was thinking when they decided that having Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn make a movie together would be a good idea, but the idea got by someone and a ridiculous Ninotchka rip-off was greenlighted called The Iron Petticoat that was the longest 90 minutes of my life.
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The four time Oscar winner plays Captain Vinka Kovalenko, a Russian pilot who defects to America because she feels that she has been discriminated against in Russia because she's a woman. Captain Chuck Lockwood (Hope) is about to take an extended leave to reunite with his snooty British fiancee when his leave gets cancelled because his superiors think he is the perfect person to convince Captain Vinka that Capitalism is the only way to live and, while trying to convince Lockwood that communism is the way to go, somehow Chuck and Vinka fall in love.
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Famed Hollywood writer Ben Hecht, who wrote classics like The Front Page, Notorious, and The Man with the Golden Arm is actually one of the co-conspirators around this silly and convoluted story that finds Hepburn playing a Russian pilot with absolutely no concept of being a woman is and Hope playing another one of his wise-cracking know-it-alls, whose dialogue is still and always was about those typical Hope one-liners where you can almost hear the rim shot in the background after each one.
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The film is directed with a leaden hand by Ralph Thomas, who directed all of those Dirk Bogarde "Doctor" movies, which apparently made MGM think he had the skill to pull off this comedy, but this was one of the least funny movies I have ever seen. I might have laughed out loud twice during the entire 90 minutes. The problem here was pretty simple: When it comes down it, this film was a romantic comedy and a successful romantic comedy requires chemistry between the stars and there isn't a scintilla of chemistry between Hope and Hepburn, as hard as the pair are working at it.
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Hepburn's interpretation of a Russian accent, which consisted primarily of always putting the accent of every word she spoke on the second syllable got very annoying very quickly and then tension between her and Hope was prevalent throughout. English actor James Robertson Justice was fun as a Russian officer, but I never really bought Noelle Middleton as Hope's snooty fiancee. Somebody at MGM should have lost their job over this one. 1

Gideon58

08-15-23, 05:10 PM

Pamela: A Love Story
Baywatch babe and pop culture icon Pamela Anderson is the subject of a long-winded but never uninteresting Netflix documentary called Pamela: A Love Story that provides a lot of interesting tidbits about the actress and busts a few myths about her, but I have to admit I did find myself checking my watch.
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The film opens with the star strolling the beaches of Ladysmith, British Columbia, the Canadian seaside community where she was born, dressed in a white bathrobe, sans makeup, definitely the first time I've seen Anderson that way, which was quite the shock. We learn from Pamela's lips that she had an abusive father, a female babysitter who molested her, and was raped at the age of 12 about 15 minutes into the film. We then watch Pamela pretend to stumble upon a bunch of diaries and journals she kept as a child and gives director Ryan White permission to have someone else read them but thinks reading them herself might be too painful.
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Loved Pamela's recollections regarding her road to becoming a Playboy centerfold in February of 1990 and how it eventually led to her starring her role on Baywatch. Her small role on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement isn't even mentioned and I have to admit I wondered why. It's not like they were trying to save time...the documentary runs close to two hours, concentrating mostly on her stormy marriage to Motley Crew musician Tommy Lee, who she married four days after meeting him and had two children with him. Anderson talks openly about the abusive man that Tommy turned out to be and about the infamous sex tape that was stolen from her and Lee. Even though the marriage ended shortly after Lee went to jail, we are a bit thrown to learn that Lee is the only man Anderson ever really loved, despite getting married four more times.
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The film gets hard to stay invested in when the story moves past Anderson's marriage to Tommy Lee until two events happen almost simultaneously: Hulu decides to make a mini-series about her sex tape with Tommy Lee and Anderson gets an offer to replace the current Roxie Hart on Broadway in Chicago, an offer Anderson jumps at, despite no formal song or dance training. The film features interviews with Tommy Lee, her sons Brandon and Dylan, and her parents, but there are no interviews with anyone who worked with Anderson on Home Improvement or Baywatch, so take from that what you will. It's a little antiseptic and one-sided, but never boring. 3.5

Gideon58

08-16-23, 05:30 PM

Shame (2011)
Before he became an official Hollywood player with 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen scored as the director and co-screenwriter of Shame, a dark and unsettling erotic drama that follows one man's quest for something he can't get enough of or something he doesn't know he wants and is in denial about it.
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The 2011 film stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, an upwardly mobile advertising executive and sex addict, who has been struggling to keep his addiction under control. but for some reason, it becomes impossible when his younger sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) arrives for a visit and wastes no time having an affair with Brandon's boss.
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As co-screenwriter with Abi Morgan, McQueen dances around some very delicate cinematic landmines here, but as a director, he reaches out slaps the viewer in the face with everything he's trying to say here. It initially seems like McQueen wants the viewer to do the work here as he takes his time in revealing exactly what kind of person Brandon is. One of the film's first serious glances into who Brandon is takes place on a subway where Brandon pretty much has an affair with a woman sitting across the aisle on the train but loses her when he tries to follow her off the train. This scene is all McQueen and speaks volumes as to who the kind of person Brandon is, as is his first meeting with a prostitute where he watches her count her money before doing anything and when she starts undressing, he instructs her to do it slowly.
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But everything changes with the arrival of Sissy as McQueen steps back a bit and lets the characters reveal their story without revealing what might be the actual point of this film. We know something's not right when the first meeting between Brandon and Sissy is when he comes home and finds Sissy in the shower. He pulls her out of the shower and they have a 15 minute conversation while Sissy is wet and naked. Now, I'm in my 60's and ha ve never seen either off my sisters naked, let alone have a conversation with them while they were naked, so McQueen is definitely trying to say something here. Brandon's life begins to spiral out of control after Sissy's arrival and we know this is no accident either.
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McQueen's story provides some balance for the viewer as he makes it clear what a prisoner Brandon is of his addiction but doesn't come right out and say what his addiction might be. McQueen allows the viewer to do a lot of the work here, while providing an eye for what is erotic on camera that rivals Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction). Love the scenes of Brandon having sex with women against open windows, as well as the possibility of what might be going on between Brandon and his sister.
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Michael Fassbender is sexy and charismatic in the starring role and the chemistry he creates with Carey Mulligan is off the charts. It should also be mentioned that Mulligan provides the film with an incredible musical interlude with the most original take on the John Kander Fred Ebb song "New York New York" that I have ever heard. It's not for all tastes, but I found this film riveting. 4

Gideon58

08-18-23, 02:12 PM

The Little Mermaid (2023)
The 2023 live action version of The Little Mermaid is an eye-popping retelling of the Disney animated classic that goes on a little longer than need be, but provides what everyone looks for in a Disney classic and a movie musical thanks to a proven commodity with musicals in the director's chair.
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Arielle is a lovely young mermaid who has an unquenchable curiosity about life at the surface, though she has been forbidden by her father, King Triton, to ever go to the surface and interact with the evil human beings. Of course, Arielle defies her father and makes her way to the surface where she witnesses a shipwreck and instantly falls in love with one of the passengers, the dashing Prince Eric. As the ship goes down, Arielle saves Eric's life but is, of course, forbidden to be with him while Eric begins combing the seaside looking for the woman who saved him.
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An evil sea witch named Ursula has been watching what happened with Arielle and confronts her with an offer: She will turn Arielle into a human for three days and if she can get a kiss from Eric, she will remain human and all it will cost Arielle is her voice.
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Hans Christian Anderson actually gets onscreen credit as one of the screenwriters for this classic tale and he is assisted by David Magee (Mary Poppins Returns) and John Musker, who wrote the original animated film. They provide the story we expect though it is a bit overstuffed with a few scenes that run much longer than necessary, resulting in the film's slight overlength. The original shipwreck, the scene at the street carnival, and the final battle with Ursula all could have been trimmed a bit. There were some logistical issues that nagged at me throughout as well: At the street fair, they make a big deal out of the fact that Arielle eats flowers and combs her hair with a fork. When she's bathing at the castle she eats soap, but when they're dressing her, she knows exactly what a corset is and even mentions it in her song. How would a mermaid know what a corset is? I also wouldn't have minded seeing Arielle have a little trouble adjusting to having legs.
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Fortunately, these minor issues don't deter thanks to the brilliant Rob Marshall at the helm. Marshall directed the 2002 Oscar winner for Best Picture Chicago and the film version of Into the Woods knows exactly what a musical should like and I've said this before: Anytime a musical is brought to the screen these days, Marshall should always direct. He provides perfect staging of musical numbers with perfect choreography for dolphins and sea turtles.
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Musical highlights include Arielle's "Part of Your World, Sebastian's "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl", Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" but if the truth be told, my favorite number was a sassy little rap number led by Awkwafina voicing Scuttle called "The Scuttlebutt", written especially for this movie.
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Halle Bailey is absolutely enchanting as Arielle...this is a stunning beauty with the voice of a Broadway star. Oscar winner Javier Bardem was terrific as King Triton as was Tony Winner Daveed Diggs (Hamilton as the voice of Sebastian the crab. Melissa McCarthy is nothing short of brilliant as the rotten Ursula, who refuses to play fair. I have to admit that during the final third, I began checking my watch, but found this live action remake first rate entertainment for the most part. 4

Gideon58

08-19-23, 02:53 PM

Jurassic Park
The same year he won his first Best Director Oscar for Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg also created one of the best popcorn movies ever and a box office smash. Jurassic Park is a thunderously and consistently terrifying nightmare of nature versus technology and man's insatiable desire to control both goes horribly wrong.
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The 1993 film is set in Central America where we meet an eccentric millionaire named John Hammond (Oscar winner Sir Richard Attenborough) who is putting the final touches on an amusement park he is planning to open in a year which will feature live dinosaurs, that Hammond is having hatched from birth but controlled by technology. Hammond invites a pair of paleontologist (Sam Neill, Laura Dern), a cynical doctor (Jeff Goldblum), and his grandchildren to tour the park in hopes that the paleontologists will endorse the park before it opens. But when one of Hammond's employee's attempts to steal dinosaur embryos and security systems controlling the dinosaurs are shut down, everyone on this tour is put in grave danger.
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Spielberg really knocked it out of the park here and I'm not sure why I waited all these years to actually watch this film, but I can't recall the last time a film had me alternately riveted to the edge of my chair and jumping out of it. Admittedly, Michael Crichton and David Koepp's screenplay contains a lot of headache-inducing techno babble that keeps this movie in first gear for the first thirty minutes or so, but once said exposition is over and the genius that is Steven Spielberg takes over, just grab something and watch.
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This film contains one heart stopping sequence after another made all the more effective because the group of people we meet at the beginning of this park tour get separated for the majority of the running time, documenting that classic saying about safety in numbers. It's not just Spielberg's state of the art (for 1993) technical wizardry, but it's not always about making the viewers eyes pop. There's a horrific scene where Hammond is suggesting to Neill's character that they break for lunch and he sees a bull in a harness being lifted over some sort of cage covered with leaves. We learn that a dinosaur is being fed but Spielberg doesn't show us the carnage, he just shows the bull being lowered, the noise as it happens, and the harness being lifted out, now torn and tattered. Racing a dinosaur out of a tree with a car right behind them that was also in the tree and the finale where we actual see different breeds of dinos turn on each other were also scenes that had me tempted to cover my eyes.
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Some parts of the film had a slight air of predictability to them. We learn early on that Sam Neill's character is not crazy about kids, so guess who gets stuck protecting Attenborough's grandchildren for most of the running time? Or when a technician, played by Samuel L Jackson, says he can't run the park system without Wayne Knight's character and seconds later we see Knight's car stuck in the mud and having his own dino encounter.
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There are some interesting messages about ecology and tampering with nature that come through here, mostly via Goldblum's character, but they take a back seat to the seriously scary and thunderous roller coaster ride this movie is. Did love the shot about halfway through the film of the gift shop with all the merchandising that we know is going to end up in an incinerator. Mr. Spielberg, we're not worthy. The film won Oscars for Visual Effects, Sound, and Sound Effects Editing, all richly deserved.
4.5

Gideon58

08-19-23, 05:15 PM

The Out-Laws
A Netflix film produced by Adam Sandler, The Out-Laws is a silly and hard to swallow action comedy that seems five hours long. Got the feeling Netflix approached Sandler to star in it and he chose to produce instead. Smart move.
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Owen Browning is a nerdy bank manager engaged to the beautiful Parker McDermott, who reluctantly informs Owen that her parents, who were out of the country, will be able to attend their wedding after all. What Parker doesn't know is that her parents are bank robbers who owe a dangerous criminal $6,000,000 so they change their RSVP to the wedding so that they can rob the bank where their future son-in-law works. Unfortunately, their short on what they owe so the criminal kidnaps Parker until she gets the rest of her money.
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The screenplay by Ben Zazove and Evan Turner is positively juvenile and really difficult to latch onto. Are we really supposed to believe that these two people raised a grown daughter who has no idea that her parents have been robbing banks forever? And how do people who rob banks for a living accrue a six million dollar debt to anyone? And why would they think the solution to their problem is to come to their daughter's wedding and put her and her fiancee in danger?
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Director Tyler Spindel, who directed the dreadful Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill has somehow managed to mount a comedy with manic pacing that still felt five hours long. There's some really strange casting too. I don't know what Spindel was thinking with the casting of Poorna Jagannathan as the woman to whom the McDermotts owe all this money. More laughs were provided by the parents than the bad guys in this one.
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This was one thing Spindel got right was his casting. Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin (who both looked amazing), were all kinds of fun as Parker's parents, but Richard Kind and Julie Hagerty were equally funny in the less showy roles of Owen's parents. Unfortunately, Adam Devine is exhausting as Owen and Nina Dobrev just provides another variation on the various TV wives she has played. Michael Rooker provides some fun moments as a federal agent on the case. Hardcore Brosnan fans might want to check this out, but for this reviewer, another one hour and thirty seven minutes of my life I won't be getting back. 2

Gideon58

08-21-23, 06:20 PM

Ship of Fools
Director Stanley Kramer (The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremburg, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) provided one of his most forgotten and underrated works in 1965's Ship of Fools, an adult shipboard drama rich with romance and bigotry and a lot more substance than we expect.
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Based on a novel by Katherine Ann Porter, it's 1933 and a ship is leaving Mexico and traveling to Germany and our guide for the journey, a dwarf named Glocken (Michael Dunn), speaks directly to the camera and assures us that we're likely to meet someone like ourselves during this journey. Among the stories that unfold are the slow burn romance between the ship's doctor (Oskar Werner) and a Spanish Countess (Simone Signoret) who are both harboring secrets; Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh) is an aging femme fatale who is looking for male attention, any male, preferably someone younger; A bigoted German newspaper publisher (Jose Ferrer) who wants all blacks and Jews shipped off to an island somewhere; Tenny (Lee Marvin) is an ex-baseball player bitter about the end of his career and wants to drink and hump his way through this cruise; Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley) is a trust fund baby in love with an arrogant artist (George Segal) with whom she's afraid she has nothing in common with but sex. There's also a family of flamenco dancers on board where dad is pimping out his daughters and hundreds of Spanish immigrants have been picked up and are being stored in steerage
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Uh. yeah, this is not your typical 1965 melodrama. Abby Mann's Oscar-winning adaptation of Porter's novel is multi-layered, not only offering a glance at the class system between 1st class and steerage, that anyone who saw Titanic is already aware of, but offers individual stories within that system that have a surprisingly adult slant for a 1965 movie. Was shocked when Jenny said she was looking forward to 26 days in separate cabins to see if they had something in common besides sex. I couldn't believe the beautiful young flamenco dancer who was willing to offer herself to a stranger for the bargain price of $40. It was shocking watching the tragic Mary Treadwell throw herself at any man who would look at her twice, but an encounter with Tenny climaxed with her beating the hell out of the guy.
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There is an air of familiarity to some of what goes on here. Leigh's character, Mary Treadwell, is pretty much a retread of Blanche DuBois, who Leigh played in A Streetcar Named Desire, but this character doesn't try to sugar coat who she is the way Blanche did and Leigh completely invests in it. Watch that scene where she's in front of the makeup mirror...this woman is definitely not there. The back and forth between Jenny and David on the other hand, required complete attention because their relationship changed in every scene and we definitely know there is more going on with this countess than what initially surfaces. There are a couple of scenes that go on longer than they need to, especially the flamenco family's first dance, but a minor quibble.
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In addition to Mann's Oscar for adapted screenplay the film received seven other nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Werner, Best Actress for Signoret, and Michael Dunn for Supporting Actor, though I could have seen a supporting nomination for Marvin as well, he stole every scene he was in. A supporting nod for Ashley wouldn't have been a terrible thing either. Sadly, this was also Vivien Leigh's final film role. 4

Gideon58

08-22-23, 01:36 PM

Elemental
Once again, Disney Pixar has overshot its load with an overstuffed spectacle called Elemental that is stupid with cinematic magic; unfortunately, it is mostly wasted on an illogical story that takes forever to get to its five endings, making an hour and forty-one minute film seem five hours long.
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The 2023 film takes a theme common with Disney Pixar and tries to wrap it around subjects for which it doesn't really make sense. The movie takes place in a magical city called Firetown, where the residents are all elements (fire, water, wind, land, and air) attempt to live together. Ember is a teenage fire girl who works in her father's shop called The Fireplace, that she dreams of taking over when he retires. One day, during an important sale, the pipes in the basement burst and a city inspector, a water guy named Wade, reports it and tells Ember she must find a way to fix it or her father's shop will close down. Wade offers to help Ember in anyway he can because, even without realizing it, he is starting to fall in love with fire, even though he is water.
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Similar themes have been explored in the movies forever...blacks can't be with whites, bees can't be with humans, foxes can't be with hounds, foxes can't be with rabbits, a lot of these in Disney Pixar creations, but there's no way for screenwriters John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh to legitimize the love story they are trying to tell here. These are elements, not people, not animals, they're elements, elements that cannot be together, period. From the beginning of time, we've seen what happens when fire and water make contact...eventually, fire goes out. There was no way I could wrap my head around the concept that these two elements could co-exist.
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Of course, as accustomed with Disney Pixar, the film is a blazing (pun intended) technical achievement. The look of this film is absolutely stunning with incredible production design and set pieces. This animated film features images of water that look more like real water than any animated film I have ever seen. It's not just the look of the water but the illustration of its power is like nothing I have scene. It's absolutely terrifying during the 5th or 6th ending when Firetown gets flooded. Genuine terror is created here, but it doesn't change the fact that Ember could travel through all this water and survive. The relationship between Ember and her parents reminded me of the family on the sitcom Kim's Convenience.
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This is director Peter Sohn's directorial debut, though he did provide voices for Lightyear and the Oscar winning Ratatouille. Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie do wonderful voice work as Ember and Wade, respectively. Wendie McClendon-Hovey was also very funny as Gale, Wade's boss, but I just found this film illogical and a little bit exhausting. 3

Gideon58

08-22-23, 05:25 PM

The Muse
Albert Brooks had a real misfire with 1999's The Muse, a sadly unfunny black comedy that starts off promisingly, making most of the characters in the film look like blithering idiots, including a handful of Hollywood heavyweights playing themselves.
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Brooks plays Steven Phillips, a Hollywood screenwriter whose career is circling the drain who desperately seeks advice from a successful fellow screenwriter named Jack (Jeff Bridges). Jack reluctantly hooks Steven up with Sarah Little (Sharon Stone), a woman who worked with Jack as his "muse." Exactly what a muse is is not explained clearly by Jeff and not clearly understood by Steven, who gives into some expensive demands from Sarah for her services.
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It's not long before it's revealed that Sarah has been a muse for Rob Reiner, Martin Scorsese, and advised James Cameron not to do a sequel to Titanic so Steven is willing to put up with the expense and inconvenience until Sarah starts spending more time with his wife, Laura (Andie McDowell), motivating her to become the next Mrs. Fields, with an assistance from Sarah's good pal Wolfgang Puck.
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Brooks wrote this film with his long time collaborator the late Monica Mcgowan Johnson, who also helped him write Lost in America and Mother, two films I really liked, but Brooks really misses the boat here. This Steven is thrown constant clues from jump that this woman Sarah is not what she purports to be, but Jack keeps getting sucked in deeper. What kind of "muse" demands a gift from Tiffany's on their first meeting with a new client? It was when Steven moved out of his own bedroom and allowed Sarah to move in that it was check out time for this reviewer. A reveal about who Sarah is does come out eventually but Brooks pulls that reveal out from under us before the credits roll...what was the point?
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There are some expensive production values and in addition to the above mentioned stars, there are also cameos from Cybill Shepherd, Steven Wright, Lorenzo Lamas, Bradley Whitford, Jennifier Tilly, and Mark Feuerstein, but all the star-gazing in the world doesn't disguise how dumb this movie is. 2

Gideon58

08-23-23, 05:32 PM

The Tutor
There are some expensive visual trappings, some stylish direction, and a terrific performance by the star, but 2023's The Tutor is another one of those alleged psychological thrillers that challenges viewer attention span because the story takes way too long to get where it's going and a lot of the journey just doesn't make sense.
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Garrett Hedlund, who you might remember as the youngest brother, Jack, in Four Brothers plays Ethan, a tutor to spoiled trust fund babies prepping for their SAT's who lives with his pregnant girlfriend. Out of the blue, Ethan is offered $2500 a day to tutor a kid named Jackson for a week at an incredible estate on Long Island, but all is not as it seems when it becomes clear that Jackson knows who Ethan is and everything about his life.
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This is screenwriter Ryan King's second feature length film and that becomes apparent pretty quickly as one can drive a truck through all of the holes in this screenplay. Once it is established exactly who Jackson is, a plethora of questions crowd the viewer mind...like why didn't he contact Ethan directly years ago instead of stalking him? And once he's got Ethan right there in his house, he continues to hide who he is like he expects Ethan to figure out by himself. At the halfway point in the film, Jackson drugs Ethan which finds him at the bottom of a lake. After all of this, Jackson decides to talk to Ethan's girlfriend and get her on his side...why not talk to her first? And later when Ethan returns to the mansion to confront Jackson, we're supposed to buy that there are strangers living there now who have no idea who Ethan is?
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Director Jordan Ross, whose experience is as limited as King's, is probably best known for writing and directing a 2017 film called Thumper, does show some directorial skill. he definitely knows what a movie should look like. The opening scenes showing what Ethan does for a living are extremely well-mounted, where he gets first rate editing assistance. They are so good that we almost think we are prepped for an outrageous black comedy, but there was definitely nothing funny here. I have to admit that moment where Jackson and entered Ethan's room and laid down with his head in Ethan's lap was undeniably creepy.
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Hedlund does work very hard as Ethan, evoking sympathy for a character who may or may not deserve it. Victoria Justice, who I last saw playing Janet in the TV remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tries to make something out of her thankless role as Ethan's girlfriend, but Noah Schnapp is a little overripe for my tastes as the tightly wound Jackson. It's a bice effort, this director and screenwriter need a little more seasoning. 2

Gideon58

08-25-23, 05:05 PM

For Keeps?
A screenplay with a few surprises, emotionally charged direction, and a solid cast make the 1988 romantic comedy-drama For Keeps? an entertaining story that really puts the viewer behind the lead characters, demanding that they get what we want for them.
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Darcy (Molly Ringwald) and Stan (Randall Batinkoff) are high school seniors who are planning a long distance romance while they plan going to college on opposite coasts where Darcy plans to study journalism and Stan wants to study architecture. Unfortunately, Darcy and Stan's plans fall apart when, after six sexual encounters, Darcy becomes pregnant. Darcy's single mother wants her to have an abortion and Stan's parents want her to give the baby up for adoption, but Darcy and Stan want to raise the baby themselves.
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The intelligent and mature screenplay by former SNL regular Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue have provided what initially appears to be a by-the-numbers story of teenage pregnancy that we've seen a million times, but this one goes to several places this reviewer did not see coming. Shock was my reaction to the way Darcy and Stan's families turn their backs on them and once they get married, they are completely offscreen for a healthy chunk of the running time. Was also impressed with the story addressing post partum depression when, after the birth of their daughter, Darcy doesn't want to touch her. That was plot twist I did not see coming up at all that was woven seamlessly into the more obvious financial problems that arise for the couple, giving a good chunk of this film a lot more depth than I expected.
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The screenplay is a little vague about when the film takes place. Taking into account, costuming, music, and most importantly. characters' attitudes about male and female roles in society, I would say it takes place in the 50's. It was confirmed for me when Stan flipped out the first time Darcy suggested that she get a job until the baby was born.
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John G. Alvidesn, who won a Best Director Oscar for Rocky, was in the director's chair and served as film editor for this film as well. Alvidsen really brings us into the heats and minds of these characters and creates some genuinely cringe-worthy scenes throughout. That moment at the Thanksgiving dinner table where the news first comes to fruition is fraught with tension and heartbreaking was the only way to describe watching Stan stepping up for his daughter because her mother didn't want to touch her. The manipulative interference from Darcy and Stan's parents brought a lot of tension to the story as well.
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Molly Ringwald brings a maturity to Darcy that we don't see coming and can we talk about this Randall Batinkoff's dazzling film debut in the role of Stan? Batinkoff is undeniably charismatic in this role and has continued to rack up an impressive resume through the years, but for some reason, no one knows who this guy is and that's a shame, because this guy commands the screen here. Also have to give a shout out to Miriam Flynn, best known for playing Catherine in the Vacation franchise, who registers in the really unlikable role of Darcy's mother. This movie was a pleasant surprise that got by a lot of people and the only thing that confuses me is the question mark at the end of the title. 3.5

Gideon58

08-26-23, 05:30 PM

Harry: The Interview
This 2023 documentary is actually an ITV British television interview conducted by ITV's Tom Bradby with Prince Harry, which coincided with the release of the book Harry just wrote called "Spare", that has now been release din the form of documentary.
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Bradby mentions more than once that he and the Prince are longtime friends, so it's probably safe to say that the guy was very careful to only bring up things that Harry was willing to discuss. If the truth be told, the guy's lips seemed to be firmly attached to Harry's butt for the entire interview.
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I have to admit to being a little shocked that Bradby actually asked Harry about the day his mother died, but was impressed with Harry's recollection of the day and the conversation he had with his father was quite moving. This part of the interview did lose me though because Harry concluded by stating that everyone he has ever talked to about his mother's death remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard Diana had died. The only famous person death I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news was the death of John F Kennedy. It goes without saying that Harry's issues with the paparazzi were easy to understand.
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There were times during the interview when Harry appeared to be talking out of both sides of his mouth, but I'm not sure if that's really fair since I really wasn't paying attention when he and his wife were going through whatever it was they were going through that had them on the news for a daily basis for awhile. One of the reasons I watched this documentary was I was hoping Harry might recall for those of us who might have missed it exactly what happened. Full disclosure was never really provided. All we know now is that a permanent rift has come up between Harry and the rest of his family, especially his dad, Charles and his brother, William (who he refers to as "Willie"). I thought it was interesting that Harry felt it was important to be honest about his drug use in the book, but wasn't sure if it was fodder for the media.
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A couple of things do come through in this interview, primarily that Harry still loves his family and wants reconciliation but claims the ball is in their court. The subject of Camilla Parker Bowles was the only humor I found in this rather dry interview from an articulate family man who still has a spoiled child living inside him. It was fun listening to Harry reading excerpts from his book. 3

Gideon58

08-28-23, 05:59 PM

The Bad News Bears
A terrific performance by Walter Matthau is the main selling point of 1976's The Bad News Bears, a by-the-numbers sports comedy given some originality by having child actors talking like sailors.
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Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker, a beer-drinking, pool-cleaning, former minor league baseball player who is paid to coach a ragtag group of foul-mouthed ballplayers into a real baseball team. When the team displays virtually no talent on the field and Buttermaker is asked to give it up, he instead decides to help the team by hiring a female pitcher with a bullet for an arm and a juvenile delinquent who help the team score runs but bring just as much conflict to the team.
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Burt Lancaster's son, Bill, has provided a screenplay where the main attraction seems to be ten year olds using a lot of adult language, but there are some additional layers to the story that bubble to the surface. Eventually, Buttermaker's obsession with winning and making himself look good become more important than the team as a whole, which is supposed to be the primary message here I guess.
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The big draw here was actually supposed to be the first film appearance by Tatum O'Neal, after becoming the youngest actor in history to win an Oscar for her film debut in Paper Moon. Someone was determined to prove that O'Neal's Oscar win was no fluke and that she wasn't riding on her father's coat tails. If the truth be told, the performance is nothing special and O'Neal is still a working actress today, but, honestly, she has never topped her work as Addie Prey. This film did feature an impressive film debut with Jackie Earle Haley's first film role as Kelly the juvenile delinquent.
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The offbeat idea of utilizing music from Bizet's Carmen for a lot of the story actually works. Matthau is a pro, as always, but he really is relegated to playing second fiddle to these kids, including Alfred Lutter, who had just finished playing Ellen Burstyn's son in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Chris Barnes as Tanner. Vic Morrow and Joyce Van Patten score in supporting roles and you might recognize the young man playing Morrow's son as Brandon Cruz, who played Eddie on the ABC sitcom The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The film was followed by two sequels The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, but neither featured Matthau or O'Neal. There was also a short-lived television series that featured Jack Warden as Buttermaker and Tricia Cast as Amanda. 3.5

Gideon58

08-29-23, 01:54 PM

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Harrison Ford once again picks up his whip and dons his fedora for the fifth installment in the franchise, 2023's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, another roller coaster ride from Dr. Jones and company that provides everything we expect from the franchise and respects the fact that Dr. Jones is not a kid anymore, but also had me checking my watch.
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Indy is getting older, getting a little bored with teaching, and even getting bored with the adventure and danger he has become accustomed to, but once again is motivated to retrieve a valuable artifact that could change the course of history, especially if an evil Nazi named Dr. Voller gets his hands on it.
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The screenplay here does try to cover a bit too much territory but I do like the fact that it respects the history of the franchise by having characters return from pervious movies. It also never forgets that Dr. Jones is getting older. Love the scene after he returns home from his most recent adventure and storms downstairs with a baseball bat to his downstairs neighbors to complain about the noise. We also see the importance of family to Indy in that his primary nemesis in this film is a goddaughter who he hasn't seen since she was a child.
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This movie redefines the action sequence with some of the most hair-raising sequences I've seen in a long time. Indy being chased through the subway on horseback was worth the price of admission alone. The underwater sequence with Antonio Banderas was almost as squirm-worthy as was that very narrow passageway where the walls are covered with disgusting insects, revitalizing Indy's fear of snakes. What I loved most though is that in the middle of a lot of this action, Indy would just stop, because he was tired, and he would tell everyone he was "thinking."
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There was some reticence when I learned that Spielberg was not in the director's chair for this, but James Mangold (Walk the Line) does competent work in the director's chair, though I wish he had reined it in a little so it wasn't so long. Though Ford is still wearing this character like comfortable shoes, I did get a sense that he 's ready to hang up the whip and fedora, but I really enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Voller and Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Indy's goddaughter, Helena. Fans of the franchise will not be disappointed. 3.5