Gideon58's Reviews

Fresh
Boaz Yakim made an impressive debut as a director and screenwriter with an inventive urban crime drama wrapped around a character study called Fresh that engages the viewer primarily through a fascinating central character.

This 1994 sleeper is set amid the violence and racial turbulence of contemporary Brooklyn where we are introduced to a 12 year old kid known in the hood as Fresh. Fresh is a 12 year old drug runner who is actually working for more than one dealer while keeping his guardian and school in the dark as well as trying to figure out how to get his heroine addict sister out from under the thumb of a powerful dealer named Esteban.

Yakim's screenplay is a little cliched and forces the viewer to accept a lot. The story sets up Fresh to be the smartest character in the story and considering the kind of story that's being told here, that's really stretching credibility. I'm pretty sure that if what happens to Fresh during the duration of this story happened in real life that Fresh would not come out of this story alive. Not only does Fresh come out alive, he leaves several bodies in his wake and not through actual violence, but through his street smarts and ability to manipulate people and situations. The story is full of unabashed violence and the victims both have what's coming to them or are innocent bystanders. We know five minutes after he appears onscreen, that Fresh's BFF Chuckie's big mouth is going to get him killed.

Yakim shows real style as a director though and his mounting of this story is often imaginative and intense. Those opening shots of the buildings in the Brooklyn neighborhood appearing one at a time are very effective. The schoolyard shooting features some great camerawork that provides a shock when Yakim's camera beautifully disguises who one of the victims is, taking the viewer totally by surprise. Yakim does give us a riveting central character in Fresh...he is smart, instinctive, would do anything for his friends, knows when to stick up for himself and when to shut up. He has learned to bury emotions because he knows they can kill you on the street. The scenes with his deadbeat dad, beautifully played by Samuel L. Jackson, are quite intense.

Sean Nelson is absolutely amazing, doing Oscar-worthy work in the title role, creating a character, along with the aid of his director, that we consistently care and worry about for the entire running time. Giancarlo Esposito deserves mention as well as the greasy Esteban as does N'Bushe Wright as Fresh's sister, but it is Sean Nelson's remarkable performance and Boaz Yakim's directorial eye that are the real attractions here.

Monster (2003)
Charlize Theron won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actress of 2003 for her performance in Monster, the story of prostitute/serial killer Aileen Wournos who eventually ended up spending 12 years on death row before being executed in 2002.

This dark and mean spirited docudrama begins with Aileen's teenage years, doing anything for attention from the boys with a pretentious narration from Aileen herself about wanting to be the next Marilyn Monroe. After a pregnancy and miscarriage at the age of 13, Aileen turns to straight up prostitution, hitchhiking and having sex with men in their cars. Aileen's life begins to change when she meets a needy young lesbian named Selby who, inexplicably, falls instantly in love with Aileen and a love affair does come to fruition but Aileen only knows one way to support her new girlfriend. Her return to hooking is forever complicated when a john rapes and beats her and she ends up killing him in self-defense.

Writer-director Patty Jenkins took on unpleasant subject matter centered around a pretty unsympathetic character and outside Aileen's unnecessary narration, it's unclear as to whether or not we are supposed to sympathize with the toxic Aileen because there isn't a lot presented here to be sympathetic with...there's nothing attractive about her, she's crude, brainless and has absolutely no social skills whatsoever. There's a point in the story where Aileen decides to give up hooking and talks about getting a real job and even goes on a couple of interviews and these scenes are simultaneously laughable and pathetic as we watch her curse out a man interviewing her and throwing things about his office,

The story gets completely overheated when, after the first murder, Aileen decides to return to hooking but eliminates the sex part and just kills the guys, empties their wallets, and steals their vehicles. She pretends to enjoy it to her new girlfriend's face, but the emotional toll it's taking on her becomes a little exhausting for the viewer.

And if the truth be told, this Selby is no prize either...initially coming off as a sweet and lonely girl, once she has seduced Aileen into being what she wants, she appears to be the one who actually forces Aileen to continue hooking while she lays around a hotel room all day. Jenkins does make sure the viewer realizes that Selby was definitely a component in Aileen's downfall.

Theron did win an Oscar for her performance as Aileen and she does work very hard to be convincing, but for me, this Oscar was more about the physical transformation or more specifically, the complete deglamming of herself that Theron does for this performance. Theron is unattractive and unrecognizable and is to be applauded for her bravery in appearing onscreen like this, but the performance comes off forced and affected to me. I think her win also had a lot to do with the fact that the Best Actress race that year was a weak one. Christina Ricci was effectively understated as Selby and Lee Tergesen is chilling as Aileen's first victim, but this one's a real downer and the fact that it is based on a real person and real events, doesn't make it any more compelling as entertainment. Patty Jenkins scored better in 2017 with Wonder Woman.

Bryan Callen: Complicated Apes
It doesn't happen a lot, but I find great joy in discovering a whole new dimension to a performer who I have only seen in a particular genre or venue and having my entire concept of that performer permanently blown out of the water. This joy was just experienced with my viewing of Bryan Callen: Complicated Apes, a 2019 comedy concert that not only had me rolling on the floor but thinking about the truth behind each punchline.

Some of you might not be familiar with Bryan Callen, but might remember his appearances in films like Ride Along and The Hangover, as well as the last five years he has spent playing an overzealous gym teacher named Mr. Mellor on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs and its spinoff Schooled. Callen has crafted one of network television's most uniquely funny characters in Coach Mellor, but watching Callen return to his standup roots was an introduction to the unbelievably intelligent comic presence that Callen proves to be here.

This was Callen's third special, filmed before a live audience at Thalia Hall in Chicago where the comedian completely captivated a sold-out audience without a dependence on working "blue", without borrowing material from other comedians, without laughing at himself, and most importantly, providing candor and intelligent observations on contemporary society that it was virtually impossible to argue. I am adding him as the third member of my very exclusive list, behind the late George Carlin and Chris Rock, as a comedian who everything he says is absolutely correct.

I was particularly impressed with his disdain for the concept of celebrity in today's world and the twisted ways that people use and, more importantly, misuse the power that celebrity allows them. His observation about celebrities adopting minority children had a twist on it that I didn't see coming and had his audience in stitches and cheering. Callen proves to be a staunch feminist, giving all power in his marriage to his wife, whom he lovingly refers to as a "viking' and gives her complete credit for his two children being the socially acceptable human beings that they are. His impression of his daughter explaining the rules of a game she made up had me on the floor.

Callen impresses as being extremely intelligent, articulate, explosive, and displays a methodical approach to his comedy. He is a polished wordsmith like George Carlin or Jerry Seinfeld, but he never allows his flair with the spoken word to get in the way of a wonderful story. His final story of his encounter on a plane with a woman having a seizure is just glorious...not searching for laughs every five seconds, but gliding to a smooth conclusion that just makes the viewer humbled. A comic romp rife with equal doses of semi-raunchy hijinks and unexpected warmth. What a pleasure.

A Bronx Tale
Robert De Niro made an impressive directorial debut with 1993's A Bronx Tale, an atmospheric and ferocious story of life in the mob that on the surface does bear some resemblance to a certain 1990 Martin Scorsese epic, but establishes its own credentials with its own look at a lifestyle that is so often glamorized, but is also revealed here for exactly what it is, warts and all.

The story opens in the Bronx in 1960 where a 9-year old kid named Calogero, the son of a local bus driver (De Niro), is the sole witness to a murder committed by Calogero's secret hero, Sonny (Chazz Paminteri). The police show up at the boy's house a minute later but the boy refuses to finger Sonny and it is not long before a relationship develops between Sonny and Calogero, who Sonny renames "C" that C's dad is not happy about at all.

The story flashes forward eight years where a 17 year old C is not working directly for Sonny but is under the man's influence, though he is hanging with all the wrong people. A battle between Sonny and C's father ensues for the boy's soul while C's attraction to a pretty black girl (Taral Hicks) fuels the racial tension in the already intense Bronx neighborhood.

Chazz Palminteri not only plays Sonny, but also adapted the screenplay for this film, which is actually based on a play that Palminteri wrote, something I have difficulty wrapping my head around because I find it difficult picturing the story presented here on a proscenium stage, but if it was, Palminteri and De Niro do a beautiful job of opening up the story because there is nothing that happens on this screen that even hints at "photographed stage play"...this is cinema, riveting and engaging cinema, filled with tension, laughter, and warmth.

Yes, there are some similarities to Goodfellas here that cannot be denied...the Chez Bippy bar in this film plays the same role that the cab stand in Goodfellas played and the relationship that develops Sonny and C does resemble the relationship between Henry Hill and Paulie in Goodfellas, but in Scorsese's film, Henry's father is out of the story ten minutes in the film, but in this film, C's father remains center stage, never giving up in his quest to shield his son from the dangers of Sonny's life. Loved the scene where C is invited to go to a big boxing match by both men and because he has better seats, he invites C to sit with him instead of sitting with his father. This scene was one of De Niro's strongest moments in the story.

Speaking of De Niro, on top of his skillful and imaginative directorial eye, it was great to see him cast against type as the work a day father trying to save his son from a life that scared him instead of the wiseguy we usually see from him. Palminterri lights up the screen as Sonny and Francis Capra and Lillo Brancata were both impressive as the younger and older C, respectively. Bronx in the 1960's is lovingly recreated here, but I swear if I hear Dean Martin's "Ain't it a Kick in the Head" in one more mob movie, I'm going to lose it. A small nitpick regarding a bold and explosive piece of film making. Believe it or not, the piece actually returned to the Broadway stage as a musical in 2016 and, as of this date, still running on Broadway.

X Y & Zee
The 1972 film X Y & Zee is a bizarre and campy melodrama that attempts to be hip and relevant that just come off as unintentionally funny, not to mention plotting and characterizations that would have Noel Coward and Edward Albee turning over in their graves.

Elizabeth Taylor stars as Zee Blakely, the bitchy, venomous, and badly dressed wife of a wealthy architect named Robert (Michael Caine), who does everything she can to put a stop to Robert's affair with Stella (Susannah York), a widowed boutique owner with two young sons.

Director Brian Hutton and screenwriter Edna O'Brien attempt to disguise the fact that this basically a 1950's melodrama draped in 1970's sensibilities that never really gels the way it should. This very sophisticated approach to the romantic triangle where everyone is open and above board about it, might have been considered kind of bold in 1972, but it's just kind of laughable here. O'Brien's dialogue tires to hard to be clever and important but ends up as just coming off as pretentious and occasionally dull. Her story attempts a jaw-dropping conclusion; unfortunately, it's so blatantly telegraphed that there's no shock when it's supposed to occur.

Hutton works very hard at making sure that the viewer doesn't really notice that the actors cast in the leads are really too old for the story and atmosphere that is mounted around them. The production values are gaudy and youthful and offer definite appeal to 1972 movie audiences, but these actors just seem out of place in the atmosphere that Hutton attempts to establish here.

Elizabeth Taylor is all over the map here in one of her most undisciplined performances that alternately rivets the viewer to the screen and grates on the nerves. Michael Caine is unconvincing as the stud that has these two women fighting for him so passionately. Susannah York somehow manages to maintain her dignity for the majority of the proceedings, effectively underplaying to some serious scenery-chewing from Taylor and Caine. The music is garish and annoying, the sets overly elaborate, and Taylor's costumes were hideous, can't believe she agreed to wear some of the brightly colored shrouds she is forced to wear here. There's a lot of effort going on here in an attempt to provide a viable cinematic experience, but it never really pays off. Even hard core Taylor fans will have difficulty getting through this one.

Legally Blonde
Reese Witherspoon had a box office smash with a 2001 piece of cinematic cotton candy called Legally Blonde that Witherspoon's presence in the starring role helps to provide the piece a little more legitimacy than it really serves.

Witherspoon is Elle Woods, a prep school sorority sweetie, local beauty queen, and was Miss June on the latest campus calendar. She refers to Cosmopolitan magazine as "the Bible." She has been dating Warner (Matthew Davis), the biggest stud on campus and just waiting for him to propose. On the night she thinks he's going to propose, he instead dumps her because he says he has to concentrate on his future at Harvard Law School. Determined to prove to Warner that she is the right woman for him, Elle actually manages to get accepted to Harvard and follows Warner there.

Upon arrival, Elle's Malibu Barbie sensibility makes her an outcast with most of the campus and to further complicate things, Elle discovers that Warner already has another girlfriend (Selma Blair), another no-nonsense law student who looks down her nose at Elle while the girl battles snooty professors, sexual harassment, and even manages to get a wealthy trophy wife (Ali Larter) acquitted of murder.

This is another one of those movies from which entertainment can be gleaned as long as you understand from the start that this film is steeped in fantasy and that hardly anything that happens in this film would ever happen in real life. Karen McCullah's screenplay is the prime culprit here in that the degree of Elle's intelligence seems to change from scene to scene to fit whatever degree of intelligence the character needs at the moment. It's revealed that Elle was a fashion major in prep school and I don't care how hard she studied there's no way a girl like Elle would EVER get accepted into Harvard Law School, or that during her freshman year in law school, she would actually end up in a courtroom for a high profile murder case. If you can accept all of this, I guess this movie can be a lot of fun.

What did make it worth sitting through was the bubbly and effervescent performance by Witherspoon in the title role that puts you completely in the character's corner from jump. We really want to see Elle get everything she wants, no matter how unbelievable it is and that is due to Witherspoon, who gives this character a depth the screenplay doesn't. Witherspoon is backed by a solid supporting cast including Victor Garber, Luke Wilson, Holland Taylor, and a very young Linda Cardellini. Sadly there is a subplot involving a pathetic manicurist, played by Jennifer Coolidge, whom Elle befriends that just seems to pad the running time.

There's also a terrific cameo from Raquel Welch that's worth mentioning. This film has all the substance of a John Hughes teen comedy from the 80's but Witherspoon almost makes it seem like more. Six years later, the movie came to Broadway as a musical and ran for over 500 performances.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
The creative forces behind films like The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Squid and the Whale take a premiere dive into the world of animated cinema for the first time and hit a bullseye with 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox, a deliciously sophisticated animated look at the animal world unlike anything we've seen that absolutely rivals some of the best of Disney Pixar.

Mr. Fox (voiced by Oscar winner George Clooney) and his wife (voiced by Oscar winner Meryl Streep) have led an exciting life together stealing chickens, but when Mrs. Fox learns of her pregnancy, she demands that her husband settle down and find a safer way of living. The Foxes have a kid named Ash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) and Mr. Fox has taken a safe job as a newspaper reporter. Mr. Fox is restless though and against the advice of his attorney, Badger (voiced by Bill Murray), decides he wants to pull one more chicken heist at the three biggest factories in the forest Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, accompanied by his best friend, an opossum named Kylie (voiced by Wallace Wolardosky).

Mr. and Mrs. Fox are also anticipating the arrival of Kristofferson (voiced by Eric Anderson), their nephew who is a star at school, does yoga, and seems to be taking Ash's place in his father's heart, which Ash is having none of.

This wonderful story is based on a book by Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and has been fashioned into a smart and accessible screenplay by director Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach that provides intelligent animal characters with brains but never talks down to its audience either. I loved the way whenever Mr. Fox encounters other animals in the story, he refers to them by their latin names. And whenever a character wants to use a curse word, they use the word "cuss".

As with most of Anderson's work, the story requires complete attention and the story does sag a little in the center, but the exposition introducing the characters is a lot of fun and the finale which finds the Fox family on the run and embroiled in a knock down drag out battle with Boggis, Bunce, and Bean is spectacular.

Clooney and Streep head up a terrific voice cast, that includes standout work from other Anderson rep company members like Murray as the Badger, Owen Wilson as the whack bat coach (don't ask), and Willem Dafoe as a rat who's a security guard for Bean's factory where the alcoholic cider is manufactured. Wes Anderson proves to be a filmmaker for any demographic, even children.

Wayne's World
One of the top ten box office champions of 1992, Wayne's World is a roll-on-the-floor funny full-length film comedy based on an SNL skit created by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey that was such a breakout hit on the show that it was decided it had to come to the big screen.

On SNL, Wayne Campbell (Meyers) and Garth Algar (Carvey) were a pair of teenagers who have a silly cable access TV show they broadcast from the basement of Wayne's parents' house in Aurora, Illinois. In this movie, Wayne and Garth are approached by a slick advertising executive named Benjamin (Rob Lowe) who wants to bring their show to a real network sponsored by a video arcade guru (Brian Doyle Murray), but Wayne and Garth are unable to accept the changes that come to their show when it is no longer their own, but run by a network and a sponsor.

While trying to save their show, Wayne falls for a rocker babe (Tia Carrere) whose group has been performing at his posse's local hangout and Garth is crushing on a babe (Donna Dixon) from afar because he's too scared to actually speak to her. Wayne is also dealing with an ex (Lara Flynn Boyle), a "psycho hose beast" who refuses to accept the fact that Wayne broke up with her two months ago.

The skits on SNL never left Wayne's couch or his basement, but there's no way the movie could be 90 minutes on Wayne's couch, so Mike Meyers has written an effectively expanded story that brings Wayne and Garth out of the basement to deal with assorted nutty characters and situations without ever losing the core of these two guys Wayne and Garth, which is what made the skits so funny. It wasn't so much what these guys were doing or not doing as it was the very special "Wayne speak" between the characters and the off the chart chemistry that that Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey create.

The movie is written with tongue seriously tucked in the cheek and includes the expected breaking of the 4th wall as we are reminded near the beginning of the film that only Wayne and Garth are allowed to talk to the camera. A donut shop owner (Ed O'Neill) attempts to talk to the camera and Wayne puts a stop to that immediately in one of the movie's funniest moments. I also loved a moment later in the film where things are going really bad for Wayne and the camera leaves him in disgust and he chases after the camera begging it to come back. Meyers and director Penelope Spheeris work in perfect tandem here, as well as in the classic salute to "Bohemian Rhapsody."

This movie still provides non-stop laughs that hold up remarkably well in 2019. Rob Lowe is a surprisingly smooth bad guy and Kurt Fuller is very funny as his stooge. There are also cameos from Alice Cooper and Chris Farley, but this is Mike and Dana's show and they're all the viewer really needs. This movie is just as funny today as it was 27 years ago. Followed by a sequel.

The Misfits
The Misfits is a minor classic from 1961 that has earned its status as a classic for myriad reasons, but its placed in cinema history is cemented primarily due to the fact that the film was the final completed film for movie legends Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

Monroe plays Roslyn Tabor, a neurotic young woman who travels to Reno to divorce her husband and is staying with her Isabelle Steers (Thelma Ritter) until her final decree comes through. During the wait she meets an aging cowboy named Gay Langland (Gable) and his BFF Guido (Eli Wallach), who are both instantly attracted to Roslyn, though she is really only interested in Gay. It looks like a star-crossed romance for Gay and Roslyn until another cowboy (Montgomery Clift) joins them on their adventure to round up horses, which repulses Roslyn, who has no tolerance for cruelty to animals.

Monroe's husband at the time, playwright Arthur Miller, wrote the screenplay for this prickly romantic drama as a valentine to his bride. It's been well-documented over the years that Monroe hated this script and her contempt for the material definitely show in her performance, unfocused and overripe. It's obvious watching Monroe here, and I've never said this about her before, but she really doesn't seem to understand this story or her character.

Fortunately, director John Huston had the smarts to surround Marilyn with some of the best actors in the business, many of them near the end of their careers, but still holding onto their ability to command a movie screen. The beautiful black and white photography and some sharp film editing are big assets as well.

It's odd subject matter for a movie and Marilyn is kind of all over the place, but Gable gives a powerhouse performance and Clift is just heartbreaking. Ritter steals every scene she is in, but if the truth be told, Eli Wallach walks off with this movie as the sensitive and rowdy Guido...from the moment he walks through the house he was building for his wife, we totally fall in love with this guy. I don't think Wallach has ever been better. A mixed bag, but all the history surrounding this film, it's a must see for the serious buff.

Martin Lawrence: You So Crazy
Two years after the premiere of his very popular sitcom but before his famous breakdown, Martin Lawrence returned to his comic roots in 1994's Martin Lawrence: You So Crazy that, despite some dated language and subject matter, still provides laughs after 25 years.

Filmed before a full house at the Majestic Theater in New York, Lawrence starts off this show with the racial material that every black comic has been doing during the last 40 years. There's nothing really original here, but Lawrence's very special delivery gives the material a feeling of originality that really isn't there.

One thing I noticed that is special about Lawrence is a solid talent for physical comedy that comes through in some unique ways. Something I've never really noticed with any other comics is the way he is establishes different characters through the way they walk. It was so funny watching the way a white person in a movie theater telling on loud black people walk as opposed to the way a black female crack addict walks was really hilarious. Martin puts a different walk to several different characters during this 90 minutes and every walk is just distinctly different enough that we always know exactly who Martin is talking about.

Lawrence also takes a different tack with another subject for black comics: drugs. I loved his take on the pros and cons of smoking weed. I was particularly impressed by his take of a guy getting stoned and watching The Wizard of Oz and a guy getting stoned with his best friend and being prompted to make a lifelong confession. The expected rants about relationships take on an air of originality as well because we get a look at the ladies point of view through conversations with her girlfriends after the date.

Yes, the influence of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy is in his material (Lawrence did a movie with Murphy the same year called Boomerang), but Lawrence puts his own brand on the material and the influence never moves further than homage.

Woman's World
A clever story, a wonderful ensemble cast, and some dandy production values add up to make the 1954 melodrama Woman's World worth a look.

Clifton Webb plays Gifford, the owner of an auto manufacturing empire in New York who needs to hire a new general manager, so he flies three mid-level executives and their wives from different parts the country to Manhattan to inform them that the three men are being considered for the job. Bill Baxter (Cornel Wilde) is from Kansas City and excited about the job and even though she's happy for her husband, wife Katie (June Allyson) doesn't really want to move to New York. Texas native Jerry Talbot (Van Heflin) quietly longs for the job while his wife (Arlene Dahl) throws herself at Gifford in order to get the job for her husband. Philadelphia's Sid Burns (Fred MacMurray) and his wife Liz (Lauren Bacall) are on the verge of divorce but Liz agrees to play happy wife in order to help her husband get this job.

Jean Negulusco, the director of How to Marry a Millionaire and Black Widow shows a real flair for the melodrama here, not to mention making the most of an all-star cast and giving them all moments to shine. The screenplay by Claude Binyon and Russell Crouse offers sophistication, wit, and most importantly, an air of mystery about how the story is going to turn out. We are informed early on that Gifford's choice for the job has a lot to do with his wife even though we aren't told exactly what he's looking for in a GM's wife until the beginning of the third act and until the moment it happens, I didn't have a clue which guy was going to get this job.

There's a lot of fun to be had here in terms of characterizations and individual scenes. I loved the idea of June Allyson's Katie being made some kind of klutz who keeps getting into embarrassing situations who somehow becomes BFF's with Bacall's Liz. The scene where Allyson and Bacall go to the retail shopping outlet is so much fun and I loved Allyson having one too many martinis in an early scene and unable to stop the hiccups during a speech of Gifford's. It was also nice watching Sid and Liz reunite at a restaurant where they dated many years ago. The story gives us opportunities, perhaps too many, to get to know these three couples because it seems to take forever to get to what we came for, creating some definite slow spots along the way, making the film seem longer than it is.

Negulesco does wonders with this great cast though. Bacall is perfection, as always, and Heflin is properly intense as Jerry. Allyson seems to be enjoying herself even though she and Wilde are kind of an odd pairing. Webb is a perfect host for our story and Margalo Gilmore, who played Grace Kelly's mother in High Society, also scores as Gifford's sister, whom Gifford turns to for help in making his decision.

The film utilizes New York as a perfect backdrop for the story, the city has rarely looked more beautiful than it does here. Loved when they were coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel and faced the sign with arrows pointing "Uptown" and "Downtown." This one was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and the final choice will induce cheers.

Little Voice
An extraordinary singer and actress named Jane Horrocks is the main attraction of a singularly unique piece of film making from 1998 called Little Voice that riveted this reviewer to the screen.

It is a run down suburb of London called North Yorkshire where we meet Little Voice, a young girl who has been living as a virtual hermit since the death of her father. She doesn't talk to anyone, including her slovenly, loud-mouthed, hard-drinking mother (Brenda Blethyn). Her life has been reduced to listening to her father's record collection and her obsession with Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and Marilyn Monroe. Little Voice's mother is having an on again off again affair with a third rate theatrical agent named Ray Say (Oscar winner Michael Caine) who hears Little Voice singing one day and decides that he can make her a star. What Ray nor anyone else realizes is that Little Voice only sings when ,motivated by the spirit of her father, a spirit that does materialize in the front row when Ray arranges for Little Voice to sing at a club owned by Mr. Boo (Oscar winner Jim Broadbent).

This gloriously original film experience is based on a play by Jim Cartwright that premiered on Broadway in 1994 and only ran for nine performances, Director and screenwriter Mark Herman had to have a true passion for this piece that barely made a blip on Broadway and, if the truth be honest, the film version didn't do great business either, but do not allow any of that to deter you from experiencing a show business story unlike anything I have ever seen.

Herman really makes the viewer work for the joy in this story. For the first third of the movie, Little Voice doesn't say two words, but we are privy to her passion for Garland and Bassey and really don't think much of it until we hear the remarkable vocal instrument that belongs to the amazing Jane Horrocks. Horrocks provides uncanny tributes to Garland, Bassey, and Monroe that are not just straight up impressions of these artists but she brings her own vocal style to theirs creating a sound that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Herman makes a a strong directorial choice when Little Voice can't sing her first time onstage until the lights go out. The recurring motif of Little Voice being at her most comfortable performing in the dark is spooky but effective. And her one full performance in front of a full house at Mr. Boo's is dazzling entertainment that we wish we had relished more while it was happening because we assume that we will get to hear more and we don't. I saw Horrocks on You Tube playing Sally Bowles in a revival of Cabaret, but her work there doesn't touch this amazing once-in-a-lifetime performance that must be seen to be believed.

Michael Caine also does a powerhouse turn as Ray Say that is equally memorable. His breakdown during the film's climax is heartbreaking and I'm pretty sure it's the only time that Caine has sung onscreen. Blethyn is brassy and tragic as Little Voice's mom and Broadbent scores as Mr. Boo, as does Ewan McGregor, in one of his earliest roles as a phone repairman's assistant who falls for Little Voice. As good as the rest of the cast is, it is the extraordinary work by Jane Horrocks that rivets the viewer to the screen and makes this movie blazing entertainment.

Funny Face
Beautiful Parisian scenery, the incomparable music of George Gershwin, a clever screenplay some gorgeous costumes, and wonderful lead performances all help the 1957 musical Funny Face appointment movie viewing for the classic film lover.

Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) , the editor of Quality Magazine and Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) discover a young woman named Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) during a photo shoot at a Greenwich Village bookstore and offer her a job as a model in Paris. Jo only agrees to take the job as a means to meeting her literary mentor,a Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair).

Stanley Donen, the undisputed king of romantic musical comedy, exquisitely mounts this dazzling piece of cinematic fluff that seems more important than it is thanks to the professionalism both in front of and behind the camera. Leonard Gershe's Oscar-nominated screenplay is rich with sophistication and serves the characters effectively, providing a story that the actors are perfectly suited for. The Maggie Prescott character is actually based on fashion editor Diana Vreeland and the Dick Avery character is based on famed fashion photographer Richard Avedon.

A lot of the fun in this musical was watching the evolution of the relationship between the photographer and his muse. Loved the way Avery would set the scene for Jo before every shot describing exactly what is supposedly happening in her life and how she's supposed to be feeling when the pictures are being taken. Though not surprised, it was lovely watching Jo not being able to take being photographed in a wedding dress so lightly.

Gershwin's music provides a perfect accompaniment for this story without ever getting in the way of the story. The highlights for me were Thompson's opening number "Think Pink", Hepburn's surprisingly effective "How Long has this been Going On?", a duet for Thompson and Hepburn called "On How to be Lovely", and the Astaire-Hepburn pas-de-deux to "He Loves and She Loves". Hepburn has a beautifully choreographed dance number in a dark Parisian nightclub and Astaire provides his accustomed solo with an inanimate object...this time with a hat, an ambrella, and a cape. Also loved the "Bonjour Paris" number and the duet with Thompson and Astaire called "Clap a Yo Hands." The musical numbers are smartly staged by Astaire and Eugene Loring.

Hepburn makes a delightful leading lady in a role that was actually offered to Cyd Charisse originally. She's not a great singer, but she knows how to sell a song and even though, once again, she's cast opposite an actor decades older than Hepburn, she and Astaire do make the pairing work for the most part and we're behind the rocky road to their getting together. Of course, it goes without saying that Hepburn was one of the 1950's greatest clothes horses giving Edith Head's stunning costumes a proper easel.

But the real star of this movie is Kay Thompson. Thompson had a long and distinguished career in Hollywood as a writer, composer, vocal arranger, pianist...she was a close personal friend of Judy Garland, but she only made five appearances on film and this was her most significant film role and she makes the most of it. Thompson is dazzling in this movie, providing perfect support to the leads while simultaneously stealing the movie without anybody onscreen realizing it. It's Thompson's performance here that earned an extra bag of popcorn from this reviewer.

Lost in Translation
Bill Murray earned his only Outstanding Lead Actor Oscar nomination to date for his performance in a quirky sleeper from 2003 called Lost in Translation which combines a character study with a fish out of water story and throws in a "Brief Encounter"-type relationship on top of that, but the final results are definitely a mixed bag.

Murray plays Bob Lewis, a movie star whose career is on the decline, but has still managed to land a lucrative endorsement deal hawking a brand of whiskey for an advertising firm in Tokyo. While trying to learn how to work with his new employers, a lot of whom don't speak English, Bob finds himself involved with a woman named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) who has accompanied her photographer/husband (Giovanni Ribisi) to Tokyo on business.

Sofia Coppola served as director and screenwriter for this odd story, her fist time in the director's chair since The Virgin Suicides, for which she also co-wrote the screenplay. Her first sole venture as a screenwriter actually won her an Oscar for Original Screenplay and I'll be damned if I know why. The screenplay is the most problematic part of this production for me. Coppola is to be applauded for setting the story on foreign soil, but the story is often fuzzy and devoid of focus, never really clarifying what the movie is supposed to be about. The fish out of water elements of the story are the strongest...watching Bob Lewis deal with the Japanese and their sensibilities was a joy to watch, but the relationship with Charlotte is kind of sketchy and never really makes clear how Bob and Charlotte feel about each other. Since both characters are married, a much stronger story would have materialized if these characters actually fell in love, but it's unclear whether or not they do, making it hard to invest in this part of the story.

Coppola's direction is a lot stronger than her screenplay...her presentation of Tokyo as the setting for this story is absolutely breathtaking. She makes Tokyo seem like the most beautiful city in the world and the only place that anyone with any sense would want to live. The care she employs in making the locale a viable part of the story is comparable to the way that Woody Allen utilizes Manhattan in most of his best work. Her camera makes us care about Bob and Charlotte but also remains aloof in order to make the viewer do a little work...perhaps a little too much work, but I think that goes back to the screenplay. One thing I would have done differently as a director is during the scenes where Bob is on the phone with his wife back home, I would have eliminated the wife's voice on the other line and let Bob tell us what's going on at home with his side of the conversation because Coppola had the actor to pull it off.

The one thing that totally works here is the dazzling performance by Bill Murray as Lewis. Murray understands this character and makes the viewer understand exactly where this guy's head is regarding his career...he seems to have accepted the fact that movie offers have dried up and seems grateful for this job in Japan and works very hard at making his new employers happy. The scenes of a commercial director showing Bob how to turn his chair with the glass of scotch in his hand are just brilliant and credit for this has to go to both Murray and Coppola. There are a couple of moments where American tourists recognize him and he is completely gracious but there is a sadness behind this character's eyes that the viewer can't help but notice and make us love this guy. As the film progressed, I kept think how interesting a prequel to this film would be showing Bob Lewis at the height of his career because his backstory is hardly mentioned.

Johansson is decorative as Charlotte, but Anna Faris makes the most of a glorified cameo as an actress in Tokyo promoting her latest movie, but this is Murray's show and his Oscar nomination was richly deserved...Sean Penn was superb in Mystic River, but I don't know...

Two Weeks in Another Town
A decade after his classic The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli returned to similar territory with another glossy show business soap opera from 1962 called Two Weeks in Another Town that isn't quite up to The Bad and the Beautiful, but entertains, thanks to solid production values,and a fun story rich with colorful characters, played by a willing cast.

Kirk Douglas reunites with Minnelli playing Jack Andrus, an actor who has been in a mental hospital for three years, who has been offered a two week job in a movie shooting in Rome being directed by his favorite director, Maurice Kruger (Edward G. Robinson), but ends up being in charge of the dubbing of the non-English speaking actors. Jack finds himself drawn to Veronica (Dahlia Lavi), the girlfriend of the movie's unstable leading man (George Hamilton), even though his glamorous ex, Carlotta (Cyd Charisse) has made no qualms about the fact that she wants him back, despite the fact that she is currently the mistress to a billionaire. Other pertinent players in this melodrama are Krugers wife, Clara (Claire Trevor), a grasping and shrieking harpy who thinks her husband is having an affair with his sexy, non-English speaking leading lady (Rosanna Schiaffino); the film's Italian producer (Erich Von Stroheim) and a smart ass Hollywood agent (George Macready).

Needless to say, this one was a lot of fun. Minnelli reunited with his Bad and the Beautiful screenwriter Charles Schnee to create this outrageous show business story set in the eternal city. Minnelli was also given a bigger budget here, evidenced by actual location filming in Italy in glorious technicolor. Minnelli's eye for color is evident everywhere, always welcome since it was denied for The Bad and the Beautiful that was filmed in black and white. Schnee's screenplay is once again centered around a charismatic Hollywood figure who has to deal with his past in order to realistically construct a future for himself. There is also some very clever dialogue inserted along the way. Loved when Kruger referred to his wife as "my lawful wedded nightmare." Unfortunately, the over the top finale involving Douglas and Charisse is laughable, but was I was completely invested by this time and was able to forgive.

Minnelli's attention to production values never allows him to neglect his cast...Douglas' Jack Andrus is just as compelling as his Jonathan Shields. I loved the scene of Kirk in a screening room watching himself in The Bad and the Beautiful. Robinson and Trevor, reunited onscreen for the first time since Key Largo, are a lot of fun as the Krugers and Cyd Charisse's scenery chewing, glorified cameo as Carlotte worked for me as well. Only George Hamilton missed the boat for me, in a dreadful performance as the nutty young actor, a role I kept picturing Warren Beatty in. But the good definitely outweighs the bad here, Vincente Minnelli once again documents his propensity for mounting deliciously compelling melodrama.

Glass
M. Night Shyamalon has taken on the most ambitious undertaking of his career with 2019's Glass, a dark and shocking film that does something I have never seen before. Shyamalon has actually crafted a sequel based on two different films made 17 years apart that ultimately doesn't work, despite stylish direction and an amazing performance from James McAvoy.

This film takes place 19 years after the events in the 2000 film Unbreakable where we are re-introduced to that film's main character, David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the man who miraculously survived a devastating train accident and is believed to be a superhero. He is now running a security firm with his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). David is trying to find out who abducted four teenage girls and learns that the girls were abducted by Kevin (James McAvoy) the psycho from the 2017 film Split who has DID and has 24 different personalities. Their encounter actually lands both of them in a mental hospital where they are united with Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) , the man with the brittle bones from Unbreakable who is in a comatose state. We are then introduced to a Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) who is a psychiatrist who deals specifically with cases of delusions of grandeur and people who think they have super powers and are told that she is here to de-program the three men.

Shyamalon is to be credited for originality here, creating a sequel from two different films, but the time line for the events really connects for the viewer since the two films were made 17 years apart. The connection between David and Elijah has already been established in the 2000 film and now we are informed that Kevin and his 24 different personalities also believe themselves to be a superhero, being unwillingly led by Kevin's non-human alter, known as "The Beast" and we're also led to believe that the Beast is responsible for where David and Elijah are now and is also the key to their way out. We also see multiple characters communicate with Kevin's several personalities and somehow always seem to know which alter they are talking to, especially the girl who Kevin let go in Split. We learn that the roots of the characters goes back to their childhood, but these reveals come way too late for the viewer to care anymore.

The scope of Shyamalon's story is just too wide to completely engage the viewer and it's not just the fact that referencing two different films is necessary in order to gauge what is happening here. As often happens with Shyamalon, he just makes the viewer work too hard and provides a story that does rivet the viewer to the screen as long as you don't think about it too much. There's a point where the story starts to come together but then we learn that Paulson's character is working for a much greater power that is never really explained. The film even seems to try to set up a second sequel, but as exhausting as this journey was, the world would continue to rotate if another film never happened.

As always with Shyamalon, his direction is superior to his writing. Shyamalon creates a bone-chilling atmosphere in this movie with the use of some very imaginative camera work and some extraordinary production values. There's a wonderful moment where we see David's son arguing about saving his nearly drowned father and the camera is shooting the scene from underneath a pool of water. The shots of the long hallways of the institution set an appropriate venue for the story conveying a place out of which there is no escape.

The performances work, with a breathtaking performance from James McAvoy, which is a big factor in keeping the viewer galvanized to the screen. There is a scene where four of Kevin's personalities are having a conversation with each other and the transition from character to character is just seamless. McAvoy should be remembered at Oscar time, providing some consolation for the nomination he should have received for Split. No matter how confusing and over the top this film became, McAvoy's performance is worth the price of admission alone and it is this performance and Shyamalon's direction that earn this film its rating.

"Glass" didn't fulfill my high expectations, but none the less it was something different in a good sense in the context of superhero movies. After one viewing I would give it 6 or 7 out of 10. Another viewing is needed to settle it. It's definitely better superhero movie than average I'd say. Overall I rather agree with your take on it. I rather liked Shyamalanian twists.

I agree that the film definitely requires a re-watch...I'm pretty sure I must have missed something.

Pardners
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis teamed for the 13th time in a rowdy western comedy called Pardners that just appears to be a variation on a lot of their earlier work, just in a western setting.

The film is actually a re-thinking of an old Bing Crosby movie called Rhythm on the Range. It's turn of the century New York where we find Dean and Jerry playing Slim Mosley and Wade Kingsley, respectively, the sons of ranching partners in the old west who were killed together right after Wade's mother whisked him away to keep him out of dancer. Wade's mother becomes a millionairess who has arranged a marriage for Wade which he wants nothing to do with. After a brief encounter with Slim who was trying to borrow money from Wade's mother to save his ranch, Wade tracks down Slim at a rodeo and bribes him with a prize bull so that he will take Wade out west to learn how to be a real cowboy. Even though the cowboy lessons don't go as planned, Wade still somehow manages to get himself made sheriff and gets caught in the middle of a range war.

To the discriminating eye, one Martin/Lewis film really doesn't look much different from another. The basic premise is always pretty much the same: Lewis is the nerd who wants to be cool and looks to Martin to teach him how to be cool and there is nothing new here, except that our boys are wearing spurs and cowboy hats.

Director Norman Taurog has by this time gotten the art of working with the breezy Martin and the maniacal Lewis down to a science. Taurog appears to give physical comedy king Lewis the basic idea for a bit or scene and then allows Lewis to actually create it in front of the camera because there's no way half of the stuff that Lewis does in these movies could be in a script or come from a director. Lewis could make the most mundane piece of business funny. Whether it's the simple mounting of a horse or even the simple act of rolling a cigarette, Lewis mines every bit of comedy out of the set-ups he is provided.

And I'm still not sure how he did it, but Martin somehow not only manages to keep a straight face throughout the insanity but never allows Jerry to blow him off the screen either. Of course, Martin is compensated by usually getting the girl, even though most of the actresses cast in these movies are rarely seen again.

Sammy. Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen provide some great songs including two ballads for Dino, "The Wind, The Wind" and "You n' Me n' the Moon", a solo for Jerry called "Buckskin Beauty" and the title song duet. I also really liked Frank Devol's background music that perfectly accentuated the story, just like the old fashioned western serials.

The film even features a rare breaking of the 4th wall for the pair at the end of the movie, where they speak directly to the audience, gushing about how much they enjoy making movies for their fans. This was added to quash rumors that the partnership was on the rocks. In reality, the pair would only make one more film together and I also have to give a shout out to the brilliant Agnes Moorhead for making the most of her brief role as Jerry's hard-nosed mother. Not their best work, but there are laughs to be had here.

As much as I like Dean Martin, I don't think I can watch Jerry Lewis in a film. Unless it's The King of Comedy.