Gideon58's Reviews

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PEOPLE LIKE US
Daddy issues seem to be the underlying theme of 2012's People Like Us, a warm and compelling melodrama where we actually never meet the daddy at the center of all these issues.

Chris Pine stars as Sam Harper, a slick salesman hanging on to his job by a thread, who flies to his hometown for his father's funeral. After the service, Sam meets with his father's attorney (Phillip Baker Hall) who informs him that his father left him his massive record collection (Jerry Harper, Sam's father, was a famous record producer) and a shaving kit. Inside the kit is $150,000.00 with instructions that Sam deliver the money to someone named Josh Davis. Upon locating Josh, Sam is shocked to learn that he is an 11 year old boy who is actually Sam's nephew and also learns that he has a sister named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) who Sam never knew existed.

Director and co-screenwriter Alex Kurtzman has crafted a story that initially reminded me of Rain Man, but this story takes that one to another level. In the 1988 film, Charlie Babbitt learns about an autistic brother who has been institutionalized. In this story, Frankie is revealed to be a beautiful and intelligent single mother and recovering alcoholic struggling to raise Josh properly who was part of a second family that Jerry Harper kept a secret from Sam and his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) and now, in death, is trying to ease his conscience by giving his young grandson this money. Jerry Harper put his career ahead of Sam and he always resented him for this, but Jerry also kept an entire family a secret, making Sam's issues seem less significant in comparison.

However, this does not keep Sam from initially trying to figure out how he can keep this money for himself. We even are privy to another comparison to Rain Man as we witness Sam go to the family garage and remove the cover from a beautiful vintage automobile that obviously brought up even more memories regarding Sam and his father, evidenced in his reluctance to let Josh in the car the first time Josh asks for a ride home. But it is the immediate connection that Sam makes with his nephew that makes him re-think keeping the money and getting to know his sister.

This is an emotionally charged story that is made all the more interesting by the fact that the catalyst for everything that happens is dead at the beginning of the story and remains a viable character throughout this troubling reunion of two families. Pine gives a charismatic performance as the tortured Sam and Elizabeth Banks' Frankie is rich with pathos and vulnerability. Michael Hall D'Addario lights up the screen as young Josh and Michelle Pfeiffer is superb as Sam's mother, who has a secret or two of her own. This film features some imaginative editing, some lovely music, and had me fighting tears throughout.



MOONSTRUCK

The atmospheric direction of Norman Jewison, a stylish and humorous screenplay, and some absolutely winning performances are the primary ingredients of Moonstruck, a delicious marriage of romantic comedy and character study that is so completely engaging and mounted in such loving detail that it won three Oscars and was a nominee for Best Picture of 1987.

This is the story of Loretta (Cher), a widowed bookkeeper in Brooklyn, on the cusp of spinsterhood, who finds herself engaged to a sweet buffoon named Johnny (Danny Aiello) who has to leave town when his mother becomes ill, but before he leaves, he asks Loretta to contact his brother, Ronnie (Nicolas Cage) and invite him to the wedding. Loretta tracks down Ronnie working underneath a bakery in the ovens, where it is revealed that he hates his brother and blames him for a baking accident in which he lost his hand and the woman he loved. Loretta manages to temporarily talk the explosive young man down and before you can say "romantic triangle", Ronnie decides that he is in love with Loretta.

There is another story perfectly integrated with this one revolving around Loretta's parents. Her dad, Carmine (Vincent Gardenia) hates Johnny and thinks Loretta is cursed where men are concerned and while offering Loretta lots of free advice about men, is cheating on Loretta's mother, Rose (Olympia Dukakis) with a woman named Mona (Anita Gillette). It's revealed that Rose knows her husband is cheating but remains silent and has her own brief encounter with a stranger (John Mahoney).

It is screenwriter John Patrick Shanley's perfect melding of these two very special stories, possibly influenced by the patterns of a very large moon that follows our central characters around and is possibly monitoring their romantic destinies that won this film the Oscar for its very special screenplay, which is clever and contemporary, yet wrapped in old fashioned Italian culture that makes being Italian seem the only way to be...not since Big Night, have I seen a more shining endorsement for being Italian.

Shanley's screenplay also creates some realistic characters that make some contradictory moves that don't make a lot of sense as they're happening. Loretta tells Ronnie it's over after she wakes up after realizing she has cheated on her fiancee and yet agrees to accompany Ronnie to the opera that night. And that's another thing...when we first glance Ronnie under the bowels of this bakery, he is practically this drooling neanderthal screaming about all the injustices life (and his brother) have dealt him and a couple of scenes later, he is revealed to be an expert on La Boheme and Chagall. But we are so behind the character by this time and his mission to win Loretta that we let it slide.

Cher got the role of a lifetime here as Loretta and lights up the screen in a performance that won her the Oscar for Best Actress (but was she really better than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction?) and Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress for her beautifully underplayed Rose. Cage has rarely been sexier onscreen and Vincent Gardenia also scores as Loretta's dad. The film is bathed in rich Italian atmosphere, utilzing some exquisite NYC location filming and some gorgeous music from Pucinni, Dean Martin, and even Vikki Carr. A joyous romantic comedy that will definitely leave you warm and fuzzy on the inside.



THIS IS 40

My last encounter with Judd Apatow was the dreadfully unfunny Funny People, and after watching 2012's This is 40, I realize that the mess that was Funny People was no accident. I don't know if Apatow was trying to work out some personal issues onscreen here or if he was just trying to make his wife and children movie stars, but whatever the director's goal, it's an epic fail thanks to a muddy and unfocused screenplay that doesn't know what it's trying to say and takes 2 hours and 17 minutes to do it.

This rambling and ridiculous comedy is the story of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann), the parents of two daughters, who are both approaching their 40th birthday and this milestone is the beginning of the reveal of the mess that is Pete and Debbie's life together. Both Pete and Debbie have their own businesses which are both failing miserably...he owns a record label and she owns a clothing boutique. The label is failing because Pete is backing artists no one cares about and Debbie takes forever to realize that one of her employees is robbing her blind. Debbie wants Pete to stop eating cupcakes and Pete wants Debbie to stop smoking but they both continue their bad habits behind each other's backs. Their daughters (played by Apatow and Mann's real life daughters) hate each other, a hate that seems to be fueled by the elder daughter's addiction to the TV series Lost. which she is binge watching. We also are witness to both Pete and Debbie physically threatening children...nice, huh?

I'm guessing this movie is supposed to be based on Apatow's own experiences, but if that's true, it's hard to believe that Leslie Mann would agree to appear in it. Whatever is going on here, it's a mess that goes on forever, with a lot of stuff that just doesn't make sense. It is revealed that Pete's favorite artist is a musician named Graham Parker. Having never heard of him, I flipped over to this film's IMDB page to see who was playing Graham Parker. Imagine my shock that Graham Parker was playing himself.

Inside this hot mess of a movie is a movie that, on its own, might have really made an interesting film. It is revealed that both Pete and Debbie have fathers who deserted them as children and have started second families now that Pete and Debbie are grown. Pete's dad (Albert Brooks) is an unemployed bum who has been borrowing money from his son for years behind his wife's back. Debbie's father (John Lithgow) is an important doctor who Debbie hasn't seen in seven years and, during this story, meets his granddaughters for the first time. This part of the movie totally works...the only problem is that it is only about a quarter of the films running time.

Rudd and Mann work very hard to make this ridiculous story viable entertainment but it's an uphill battle all the way. Brooks and Lithgow are superb and there are some nice bits by Jason Segel, Chris O'Dowd, Megan Fox, and Melissa McCarthy, but this movie is really one long, dull journey that was about 45 minutes too long.



PAPER MOON

It seemed like director Peter Bogdanovich would have nowhere to go but down after The Last Picture Show and What's Up, Doc?, but he actually hit the trifecta with a another lovely black and white period piece called Paper Moon, a warm and winning comedy that made a second generation star out of Tatum O'Neal, as well as making her the youngest actor to date to win an Oscar.

Based on a novel called "Addie Prey" by Joe David Brown, this story, set during the Great Depression in the Kansas bible belt, introduces us to a slick con man named Moses Prey, played by Ryan O'Neal, who arrives at the funeral of a woman he had a past with named Essie Mae Loggins and finds no one there but a minister, two old women, and Essie Mae's daughter, Addie (Tatum O'Neal). After assuring the ladies present that he is not Addie's father (apparently they have the same jaw), they ask him if he would be willing to drive Addie to St. Joseph Missouri, since he is en route to St. Louis. He agrees but needs to do some business to make some traveling money, and when Addie quickly catches on to what Moses is doing and how she can help, this marks the beginning of a very unlikely and unpredictable business relationship.

Needless to say, the appeal in this story is the slow burn of the relationship that quietly develops between these two very unlikely business partners, made all the richer and entertaining by the fact that the two characters are being played by a real life father and daughter and Alvin Sargent's Oscar-nominated screenplay never allows us to forget this. We are reminded throughout the story of the physical resemblance between Moses and Addie and we have to chuckle every time the con man vehemently denies that he is the child's father. Even Addie herself sees the resemblance and is willing to forgive the first time Moses uses her in his con when she thinks he might be her dad, but when he insists that he's not, that's when Addie insists on the money he conned out of innocent women with her assistance. If I had one quibble with the screenplay, it would be that we never find out one way or the other whether or not Moses is really Addie's father, which might have been on purpose, but it would have been nice to know. Not to mention the fact that though she never would admit it, Addie really wanted it to be true.

The relationship is thrown a wrench when Moses picks up a gregarious good time girl named Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) and her 15 year old maid, Imogene (P J Johnson). As wise beyond her years as Addie appears to be, she reverts to complete 10 year old mode with her bold-face resentment of Trixie taking attention away from her, not to mention the front seat.

Bogdanovich has crafted another period piece, shot in beautiful black and white, that stirs images of the Great Depression as a stark contrast to the comedic story being presented. Ryan O'Neal is slick and charming as Moses and he and Kahn prove they still have the chemistry they displayed in What's Up, Doc?, but this is Tatum O'Neal's show all the way, a performance that so commands the screen, she became the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar, taking the title from Patty Duke. O'Neal won Outstanding Supporting Actress though the role is clearly a lead, as young Tatum is in virtually every frame of the film, displaying an ease with the camera that is a little startling for a 10 year old making her film debut. A triumph for Bogdanovich and the O'Neal family and a lot of fun for the viewer.



RIDE ALONG 2

From the "If you liked the first one..." school of movie sequels comes Ride Along 2, a sequel to the 2014 action comedy that offers nothing new that made this sequel worth waiting for, but I imagine you could run the two films side by side and have a hard time telling the difference.

This 2016 film finds James (Ice Cube) going after a small time drug dealer who ends up getting his partner (Tyrese Gibson) killed. With the help of a computer hacker (Ken Jeong) the trail leads to an important Miami businessman named Antonio Pope (Benjamin Bratt) who is also a drugs and weapons dealer. James' brother-in-law-to-be, Ben (Kevin Hart) has graduated from the Academy and is now a beat cop and a few days from marrying James' sister, Angela (Tika Sumpter) who manages to persuade James to take Ben with him to take down Pope because Ben is driving her crazy trying to actually involve himself in the wedding plans.

Director Tim Story has definitely been given a bigger budget here but bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. The director, as he did with the first film, has the skills to mount a proper action sequence, but when the action stops, he becomes a little too dependent on Kevin Hart to carry the rest of what's going on here; unfortunately, Hart gets very little help from the screenplay and his screen charisma can only carry a film so far without a solid story to anchor it. And Ken Jeong is just as annoying here as he was in the Hangover movies.

The antagonism between James and Ben was played out at the end of the first film and for a viable sequel, we really needed to see their relationship go to another level. We either needed to see James admit that Ben has the makings of a real detective or we needed to see Ben admit that he has a lot to learn and that he is willing to learn, but neither of these things happen, so the whole film just comes off as "been there done that", not to mention the hint of a relationship between James and a Miami detective (Olivia Munn) comes way too late, because let's be real, this guy James really needs to get laid.

The film features some lovely Miami scenery, some sharp film editing, and the endless charisma of Kevin Hart but doesn't offer something new that we didn't get in the first film and, because of that, it's a pretty sluggish journey.



Were you forced to watch Ride Along 2 at a Thanksgiving family dinner or something?



Were you forced to watch Ride Along 2 at a Thanksgiving family dinner or something?
No coersion involved...I had seen the first one and the first twelve movies I tried to watch on various websites would not play...it was the first one I could find that would actually play after fiddling with websites for almost an hour.



DEATHTRAP
Sparkling direction by Sidney Lumet, a story with constant surprises, and some terrific performances make 1982's Deathtrap a forgotten gem from what was a pretty fantastic year at the movies. This is the film version of the Broadway smash by Ira Leven (Rosemary's Baby) that ran for over 1000 performances on the Great White Way, that made a deliciously entertaining transition to the silver screen.

This is the story of Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine), a playwright whose play "The Murder Game" was the longest running comic thriller on Broadway. Since then, Sidney has had four Broadway flops and our story opens on opening night of his latest flop, "Murder Most Fair." After getting drunk and watching the scathing television reviews, Sidney receives a copy of a play called Deathtrap in the mail written by one Clifford Anderson (the late Christopher Reeve), an aspiring playwright who took a writing seminar conducted by Bruhl. He has sent Bruhl a copy of his play for comments and suggestions. Adding to Sidney's depression about the direction of his career, he is not happy to discover that "Deathtrap" is so good that "even a gifted director couldn't ruin it." Desperate to resurrect his career, Sidney decides to invite Clifford to his East Hampton home, murder him, and produce "Deathtrap" as his own.

Unfortunately, Sidney makes the mistake of verbalizing his plan in front of his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon), an extremely high strung woman with a heart condition and her name on everything that she and Sidney own. Myra initially laughs off Sidney's idea and suggests that he and Clifford work together with Sidney working as producer, but after Clifford arrives at the house, it slowly begins to dawn on Myra that her husband is serious about his plan and that's where the fun begins.

Director Lumet and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen do a beautiful job of opening the play up so it doesn't look like a photographed stage play...we watch the disgusted theatergoers leaving the Music Box theater after watching "Murder Most Fair" and then watch Sidney getting drunk at a bar and struggling to find a cab for the $52.00 cab ride back to the East Hamptons, but what we don't realize that it is somewhere doing this exposition that Sidney has read "Deathtrap", which is the springboard for the story that onstage took place entirely inside Sidney and Myra's home.

This is one of those clever comic thrillers that takes twists and turns throughout we don't see coming. Every time you think you've figured out exactly what's going on, you learn you're wrong and that's the fun of the piece...it requires complete attention but said attention pays off in spades. Lumet has a first rate team on art direction/set direction here too...the Bruhl's East Hampton's hideaway is breathtaking and the perfect setting for this slightly claustrophobic thriller. As he always does, Lumet gets superb performances from his cast...Caine effectively chews the scenery as Bruhl and Reeve gives an eye opening turn as Anderson and if your only exposure to Reeve was Clark Kent, you might be surprised here. Dyan Cannon was appropriately shrill as Myra and loved Irene Worth as a psychic named Helga Ten Dorp. Another forgotten gem from the resume of Sidney Lumet.



ROMAN HOLIDAY

Stylish and imaginative direction from one of the best in the business, a witty and intelligent screenplay with a troubled history and an enchanting lead performance by a gifted actress all make the 1953 classic Roman Holiday one of the most beloved romantic comedies ever made and appointment viewing for all cinema purists.

Audrey Hepburn was awarded her first leading role, after bit parts in two other films, as Princess Ann, the princess of a fictional European country, who is on a goodwill tour of Rome who, bored and exhausted with the responsibilities of being a princess, cracks under the pressure and is sent to bed and given a mild sedative. Longing to get away from the life that most little girls dream of, Ann temporarily wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks out of the palace in the back of a delivery truck. As the effects of the sedative kick back in, Ann is found half asleep on a bench by Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), a reporter for the American News Service in Rome who is scheduled to have an interview with the Princess at 11:45 am that morning.

When the palace realizes Ann is missing, they decided to save face by informing the media that she has taken ill and when Joe sees a picture of the Princess and realizes that she is asleep in his room, decides to try and use this to his advantage with the help of his buddy Irving (Eddie Albert), a photographer to bilk $5000 out of his boss and, well, I think you can guess the rest.

Director William Wyler takes great care in bringing this lovely, if unlikely romance to the screen, giving the Oscar winning screenplay the professional polish it deserves. The screenplay was actually written by Dalton Trumbo, who was not allowed to be credited with the screenplay because he was blacklisted at the time. The onscreen credit for the screenplay and the Oscar that it won both went to Ian MacKellan Hunter, though Trumbo does receive an onscreen credit "Story by...". This detailed and imaginative story does a wonderful job of establishing this central character of the princess. It is clear from the opening frames that this young woman is acutely aware of the importance of her position and the responsibilities that come with it, but there is also a little girl who longs to just stop being a princess and just wants to go outside and play. I love our first clue that this woman is getting weary of her life when she is glanced in the middle of a formal receiving line and the camera gives us a shot underneath her dress as she removes one of her shoes because her feet are killing her.

The attention to detail in the screenplay is a little inconsistent. I love when the Princess mentions in the privacy of her bedroom how she would like to wear nothing but pajama tops to bed just once and l later in the story when she wakes up in Joe's pajamas, she immediately checks to see if she has bottoms on as well. On the other hand, I found it a little hard to believe that during Ann's adventures in Rome after she escapes from the palace, that absolutely NO ONE but Irving recognizes her, despite the fact that her picture was splashed all over the newspapers. It was also a little troubling that even though the palace was pretending that she was sick, that it wasn't until the final act of the film that she is tracked down by palace staffers, but these are minor plot contrivances that I didn't allow to deter my enjoyment of what was happening here.

Audrey Hepburn's performance in the leading role is magical and charismatic and won her the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actress of 1953. The film also won Edith Head an Oscar for Black and White costume design and Eddie Albert received a supporting actor nomination for his fun turn as Irving. Hepburn creates chemistry with Gregory Peck as Joe, though I kept picturing Cary Grant in this role, but again, I did not let this get in the way of the joy of this lovely romantic fantasy that is a triumph for William Wyler, Audrey Hepburn, and a treat for classic film buffs.



Roman Holiday is such a great film, it's a pity more people don't see it. I think it was MarkF who said that if it was an Italian film people would find it amazing. But somehow people see two big Hollywood stars and discount the movie as some Hollywood movie-of-the-week. It doesn't help that people don't appreciate Audrey Hepburn.

I think Audrey was wonderful in everything she did. Sadly she was often paired with romantic leads that were way too old for her youthful personalty. Roman Holiday is one time that she was paired with a suitable leading man in Gregory Peck.




I think Audrey was wonderful in everything she did. Sadly she was often paired with romantic leads that were way too old for her youthful personalty. Roman Holiday is one time that she was paired with a suitable leading man in Gregory Peck.
Peck was OK, but as I mentioned in my review, I kept picturing Cary Grant in the role.



Usually Audrey Hepburn was romantically paired with actors old enough to be her grandfather: Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper.
Yeah, she and Gary Cooper were especially bad together.



Yeah, she and Gary Cooper were especially bad together.
Maybe Love in the Afternoon (1957) is a good candidate for a Worst Romantic Pairings list. Have you done a list like that already? If not, it could be an idea



Maybe Love in the Afternoon (1957) is a good candidate for a Worst Romantic Pairings list. Have you done a list like that already? If not, it could be an idea
OK, I checked my worst onscreen chemistry list and they didn't make that list though they should have.



DELIVERY MAN

An imaginative screenplay and a superb performance from its star will keep the viewer interested in a 2013 film called Delivery Man, whose basic premise appears to be a slapstick comedy but this film was anything but and had this reviewer squirming for the majority of the running time and copped out with an ending that was just a little too pat and convenient.

Vince Vaughn stars as David Wozniak, the irresponsible and unreliable delivery driver for his family's meat company who grows pot in his apartment and owes $100,000 to a drug dealer. David learns that his girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders) is pregnant but wants him to have nothing to do with the raising of the baby. Despite warnings from his buddy Brett (Chris Pratt) and brother Aleksy (Bobby Moynihan), who are both awash in children, that he has dodged a bullet, still wants to be father to his child.

David then gets a visit from a lawyer who reminds him that 20 years ago he made 693 donations to a sperm bank for which he was paid over $24,000. David is informed that his donations were widely distributed and resulted in 533 biological children for David and that 142 of them want to know who their father is, but David is not allowed to reveal himself because making the donations involved him signing a confidentiality agreement. These young people won't give up and decide to file a class action suit to get David to reveal himself, who made the donations under the pseudonym "Starbuck."

David then receives profiles of the 142 plaintiffs and is advised by Brett, who is a former attorney, that he should not open the envelope. Needless to say, David ignores this advice and starts making contact with the children individually without revealing himself, having varied reactions to his different children and causing varied effects to their lives. Things get sticky when he realizes that the "Starbuck" children have formed a foundation and have a reunion that David attends, thanks to Viggo (Adam Chanler-Berat), one of the 142 kids who has somehow found out who David is but wants to keep him all for himself.

I don't know where to begin here, but let me say this film was absolutely nothing like I expected when I read the basic plotline. Director and writer Ken Scott has crafted an unusual story that stirred some raw emotions with this reviewer that weren't all warm and fuzzy. It was very effective how vastly different each of the initial encounters with his children was...his joy at learning that one of his sons was a New York Knick, the worry of one daughter being a drug addict, a gay son, and especially a mentally and physically handicapped child who is institutionalized. I was initially drawn in by David's attempt to do the right thing by all of these young adults, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that there's no way this can happen.

I couldn't figure out how he would keep running into these people in separate places, not to mention the Starbuck reunion, and, other than Viggo, how NONE of them seem to figure out exactly who he is. On top of this, he still seems determined to be in Emma's life and a part of her life and her child without telling her he's Starbuck and that just seemed wrong. And just when I didn't think David could do no more wrong for the right reasons, he files a counter suit against the 142 young people to protect his anonymity.

Despite some really questionable behavior and some really ugly turns this story takes, Vince Vaughn's superb performance kept me curious to the end and this is where the movie lost me...Scott just tied up everything in a neat little bow where David was everyone's hero and that just didn't ring true to me, but up until then, a really novel idea for a movie that was unexpected but never uninteresting.



ANGER MANAGEMENT

Despite some serious star power, the 2003 comedy Anger Management fails to produce the laughs it should due to a ridiculously over the top story with plot holes you can drive a truck through taking a very long journey to a contrived conclusion.

Adam Sandler plays Dave Buznik, an executive assistant at a pet clothing supply company who has always been somewhat of a doormat in his personal life. He gets arrested for assaulting a flight attendant while on a business trip which leads to Dave being forced to serve 30 days in an anger management program called Fury Fighters, headed by a Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), who was actually a witness to the incident on the plane and did nothing to back up Dave's innocence.

It's not enough that Dave has been railroaded into anger management but after another incident in which Dave accidentally injures a waitress, Rydell actually decides he has to move in with Dave and follow him around everywhere he goes, including work but instead of offering legitimate anger management therapy, Rydell just seems to be setting up Dave in situations designed to make Dave snap, but Rydell's nutty therapy takes a serious detour when he sees a picture of Dave's girlfriend, Linda (Marisa Tomei).

Screenwriter David Dorfman asks us to accept a lot of ridiculous stuff going on here because it's Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson doing it. There's no earthly reason why any therapist, anger management or otherwise, would move into a patient's home and sleep naked with him in his bed. And we're just supposed to be tickled when Dave is late for work and Rydell makes him pull over his car on the middle of the George Washington Bridge so that he can center himself by singing "I Feel Pretty"? There's a whole lot of stupid stuff going on here and it's hard to watch Sandler's Dave just sit back and take everything that happens to him in this bizarre story. The only thing Rydell does that might be considered a legitimate piece of therapy is when he makes Dave confront a childhood bully (John C. Reilly), who is now a Buddhist monk, which results in a scene that resembles Sandler's encounter with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore.

The real sadness about this mess of a story is that the Dave Buznik character is possibly one of the nicest characters Adam Sandler has ever played...he's more mature than the angry man child we're accustomed to seeing from the actor, not to mention the fact that after witnessing the scene on the plane where Dave's innocence is obvious, it is hard for us to accept all the crap that gets heaped on him for the rest of the running time.

And as much as I love the guy normally, Jack Nicholson has rarely been less appealing onscreen, creating a character so obnoxious that it's hard to accept the redemption of the character attempted at the film's conclusion. Tomei makes the most of a thankless role and there are numerous bits from people like Derek Jeter, Heather Graham, Rudy Guiliani, Luiz Guzman, John McEnroe, John Turturro, January Jones, Kevin Nealon, Lynne Thigpen and an especially funny cameo by Woody Harrelson, but the story is so silly and hard to swallow and considering all the star power onscreen, this should have been something really special instead of something so...messy.



A FACE IN THE CROWD
Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, the creative force behind the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1954, On the Waterfront, struck gold with their next collaboration, 1957's A Face in the Crowd, a blistering and unflinching look at, among other things, the power of celebrity and the abuse of same, fan obsession, the power of advertising and the media and the constant monitoring of the bottom line. The film also introduced a brand new movie star to the world named Andy Griffith.

Griffith plays Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drunken womanizer who is discovered in a sleepy little farm town called Pickett, Arkansas by a radio station employee named Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) whose performance of a song on Marcia's show becomes an overnight radio sensation in Pickett, which leads to an offer to do his own television show in Memphis, which leads to Rhodes becoming a media sensation and eventually a player in the political arena and how his elevation to the position of pop culture icon also turns him into a monster, manipulating and using anyone he has to in order to get what he wants.

Needless to say, this film was WAY ahead of its time and was probably a bit of shock to 1957 filmgoers and was clearly an inspiration for later works like Elmer Gantry and Network. It is unsettling watching the journey that Lonesome Rhodes makes here...he starts out as a simpleton who practically has hayseed coming out of his ears as he is finishing off a spell in an Arkansas drunk tank. We laugh as we watch the man shout whatever he wants over the airwaves, without filter and ignoring any kind of attempts at control or censorship. However, attempts to control fall to the wayside when he actually begins to attract an audience and it is no accident that there is a strong female demographic who he magically casts a spell over. This is troubling to Marcia, who while trying to "package" Lonesome into something marketable, is trying to fight her own feelings for the man.

It's unsettling that we find ourselves laughing at Lonesome when he's trying to figure out how to deal with a television camera or how to read a television commercial and later wanting to strangle him as he uses Marcia and the rest of his handlers to the point where he thinks he doesn't need them anymore. I can't recall the last time I saw a movie character who had me rolling on the floor laughing at the beginning of the movie and cheering when he finally experiences consequences of his actions at the end.

It is shocking to me that this film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination but I have a feeling that this film shed such an unflattering light on the business of show business that the Academy might have been offended by a lot of what happens in the course of this often ugly and uncomfortable story. The primary snubs being Schulberg's bold, take-no-prisoners screenplay and Kazan's solid direction that features some imaginative camera work and some solid editorial choices. The direction and screenplay were both worthy of Oscar nominations and I think their work here easily trumps On the Waterfront. This film just might be Kazan's masterpiece.

Andy Griffith was nothing short of brilliant in his mesmerizing performance as Lonesome Rhodes, a performance that should have earned him a nomination as well. Griffith proved to be an actor of depth and power here and those of you whose only exposure to Griffith is as Sheriff Andy Taylor, you are going to be in for quite the shock. His work here reminded me so much of Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry, but Griffith made some gutsy acting choices here that Lancaster shied away from. Patricia Neal is stylish and strong as Marcia and there are a couple of razor sharp supporting performances from Walter Matthau and Anthony Franciosa as a writer who Rhodes steps on and as a slick press agent who jumps on the Rhodes bandwagon. This film also marked the film debut of Lee Remick as a 17 year old baton twirler who catches Lonesome's eye. This was a one of a kind motion picture experience that left me limp.