Gideon58's Reviews

Have you seen Kiss Me Stupid? A Billy Wilder film with Dean Martin, Kim Novak and Ray Walston? Martin plays basically himself. It's my favorite Dean Martin film.

Sounds familiar. But it's now on the list! I love Ray Walston (who coocindently plays a great antagonist in the Jerry Lewis movie Who's Minding the Store (1963)).

But I might also be thinking of Bells Are Ringing (1960) (with Deano & Judy Holliday).

I've got a really weird piece of trivia about this movie...
On the TV show Seinfeld, Len Lesser plays Uncle Leo. Leo is known for his enthusiastic "Hellos" and his getting offended when someone doesn't say hello to him.
So, decades earlier in Bells Are Ringing, there's a musical street number all about saying "Hello" to people - and there is Len Lesser as one of the people on the street singing this song about saying "Hello" as he himself is saying "Hello" - early shades of Uncle Leo!

OMG, I can't believe you remembered Len Lesser in Bells are Ringing...I remember him during that song too...love that movie.

Penelope (1966)
An effervescent and energetic performance by Natalie Wood keeps the 1966 comedy Penelope watchable despite a badly miscast leading man and some fuzzy direction and writing.

This is the story of Penelope Elcott, the flighty and pampered wife of a bank president who, on the day that a new branch of her husband's bank opens, walks in dressed as a little old lady and steals $60,000 from the bank. Her husband and the police detective assigned to the case figure out that the little old lady changed in the bathroom and have her on a security tape leaving in a yellow Givenchy suit wearing a red wig with her back to the camera, which turns out to be their only clue in tracking down said robber.

Meanwhile, Penelope goes straight to her shrink, who has been harboring a major crush on her for three years, confesses what she just did and spills everything that has led to a fascination with kleptomania. Her husband's neglect of her because of his work apparently fueled Penelope's stealing. There's also a pair of foreign con artists who get their hands on the yellow suit and try to blackmail Penelope with it.

George Wells, who won an Original Screenplay Oscar for 1957's Designing Woman, has provided a clever if overly elaborate story that might be a little over protective of our heroine. It really shouldn't have been so easy for Penelope to do what she does here and this is where Arthur Hiller's direction comes into question. About halfway through the movie, when the detective and Penelope track down the yellow suit, the detective appears to know that Penelope robbed the bank and is just trying to trap her but when Penelope confesses, neither he nor anyone believes her, which I have to fault with Hiller.

Natalie Wood, draped in glamorous Edith Head costumes, does manage to keep things humming. Though Ian Bannen is miscast as her husband, a role I kept picturing someone like Tony Curtis or James Garner in. Bannen's performance is devoid of anything resembling comic timing and really slows things down. Peter Falk is wonderful as the detective, a role the polar opposite of Lt Columbo...this guy is sharp as a tack until the screenplay and direction start working against him. Dick Shawn steals every scene he's in as Penelope's neurotic shrink and Lou Jacobi and Oscar winner Lila Kedrova also garner laughs as the blackmailing con artists. With a different leading man and more intuitive direction, this could have been something really special.

I only remember it because when I saw the movie I was like "It's Uncle Leo saying 'Hello!' even back in 1960!"

Wow! Saw this movie a while back and it was weird. Starts out as a typical Natalie Wood romantic comedy, but man it twists in some bizarre directions. A very unusual film.

Paterson
Jim Jarmusch, the indie film guru behind films like Broken Flowers and Coffee and Cigarettes takes the viewer on another quirky cinematic journey with a 2016 curio called Paterson.

This film is a seven day chronicle of the life of Paterson (Adam Driver), a bus driver who coincidentally happens to live in Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson is awakened every day by his silent alarm and kisses his Iranian wife Laura before getting out of bed and walking to the bus station where he devotes a little time to his passion, poetry, before listening to his dispatcher complain about his life. He takes lunch by the Paterson Falls and after work, goes home, has dinner with his wife and attentively listens to her about whatever is currently important in her life. He takes her English bulldog, Marvin out for a walk, stops at a bar for one beer, and takes Marvin home.

His poetry seems to be the one thing that keeps Paterson sane. He seems to float through the rest of his daily routine in a bit of a vacuum. When his wife is talking, he appears to be paying attention and pretending to be interested, but the guy just seems to be on disconnect and screaming on the inside. When his wife suggests that he make copies of his poetry he changes the subject, but that changes when they come home one night and discover Marvin has chewed up his book of poetry.

To be perfectly honest, the original reason I was drawn to this film was because I lived in Paterson, New Jersey for eleven years and I can confirm that large portions of the film were actually filmed in Paterson, but what I discovered past the scenery was a rather vague character study revolving around a likable character who seems terribly sad and we're never really given any insight into why.

Jarmusch displays a real style here as each day of the week passes, we are introduced to different scenes from different portions of Paterson's day. We watch different encounters with different people in the bar where he goes for his beer and listen to different conversations on his bus route which brought up another nitpick: Paterson drives the #23 bus, the same route every day. Wouldn't the same people be on this bus every day? Every scene on the bus features a separate set of people and I kind of found that hard to swallow.
One thing I did like was when Paterson's poetry would scroll across the screen, the audio of Driver was in the rhythm that Paterson was writing. Whether or not that was accidental, it was brilliant.

Adam Driver has proven to be an actor always worth watching and this movie is no exception, giving life to a sad and slightly pathetic character, a guy who seems to bathe in a private misery that he refuses to share with anyone and Golshifteh Farahani is luminous as his wife, Laura. This is not for all tastes, but fans of the director will definitely find treasure here.

Growing up Brady
Five years after the release of The Brady Bunch Movie, NBC brought us Growing up Brady, a gimmicky and saccharine adaptation of the best selling book written by Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady on the classic ABC sitcom.

After a brief introduction featuring Williams playing himself, the 2000 NBC TV film then chronicles the history of the series from casting to cancellation and how the series forever changed the lives of those involved. The film focuses primarily on two pertinent parts of the Brady story: the on again off again romance between Williams and his co-star, Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia and actor Robert Reed's disdain about the quality of the show's writing and his constant head butting with creator and executive producer Sherwood Schwartz.

Most of the material presented here has been part of pop culture for decades so it might have been asking too much to learn something new. As a fan of the series and someone who actually read Barry Williams' book, curiosity was aroused as to whether or not I would learn something new about Williams or the show or what the producers of this movie would bring to the story to make it special.

Curiosity was quickly dashed as this movie appears to have been slapped together in rather haphazard fashion. More care appeared to have been poured into the 1995 movie than in this one and I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that this was a TV movie and the other was a theatrical release. There are certain things that it seems would have been important in mounting this story, especially after the 1995 film, that just didn't seem important, primarily the casting...none of the actors cast even come close to physically resembling the actors they were playing, with the possible exception of Scott Lookinland, son of original Bobby Mike Lookinland, who also appears in the move as a cameraman.

I'm not sure what was I expecting, but I do know I expected more laughs than this movie provided. The only scene that made me laugh out loud was when a scene between Greg and Marcia took 46 takes because they were coming off as boyfriend/girlfriend not brother/sister. I did enjoy the look into the unscrupulous agent who swooped into the kids' lives after season 3 and tried to turn them into music superstars and though there wasn't much said about Robert Reed's being gay, the movie did make it clear how much Robert Reed adored those six kids and this movie ends with a credit saying it was produced in his memory.

Adam Brody and a pre-Big Bang Theory Kaley Cuoco try to generate chemistry as Barry and Maureen, but even their makeout scenes are kind of bland. I did enjoy Daniel Hugh-Kelly as Robert Reed and Michael Tucker as Sherwood Scwartz, but the movie was a disappointment, probably because I was putting expectations on it that it couldn't possibly live up to.

Beautiful Boy
Some powerhouse performances help a 2018 fact-based drama about the horror of addiction called Beautiful Boy keep the viewer engaged in the story despite the accustomed sledgehammer approach to the screenplay, though it's quite effective in showing the effects of the disease on the addict's family.

The film is based on a pair of books written by Rolling Stone journalist David Sheff and his son Nick regarding Nick's battle with his addiction to crystal meth that lasts many years and nearly tears this father and son apart.

Director and co-screenwriter Felix van Groeningen has crafted a story that provides equal doses of family warmth and stark realism as we watch a father absolutely clueless about addiction wanting to do whatever he can to help his son and even though the message is a little heavy-handed, this is one of the few films about addiction I have seen that really drives home the point that no one can save an addict but the addict himself. Loved ones can support and point the addict in the right direction, but an addict can only get clean if he wants to get clean.

There is an air of familiarity to this story and I did like the way the story actually begins in the middle with David on the phone to hospitals because Nick has been missing for two days. David's ignorance and naivete about the disease at the beginning of the movie is a little hard to take, but the journey that David goes on here to educate himself about the disease is easily the most compelling part of the story. At the beginning of the film, he is believing anything his son tells him and halfway through the second act, when his son is visiting and arrives home late without calling, he doesn't argue with his son but demands that he take a drug test then and there. Nick's reaction to this was very telling and vividly real.

The film doesn't shy away from the addict's side of the story either. Nick's constant talk about having the desire to quit but not being able to was very realistic and the scene where he and his girlfriend break into their dad's house while he's not home was a real heartbreaker. The camera is often merciless here, the shot of Nick from outside of a locked bathroom door where he has possibly overdosed is undeniably powerful.

It was also interesting watching the way David's current wife and Nick's mother are affected by what's going on with Nick. I loved when Nick was driving away from the house after breaking into Dad's house and we suddenly see his dad's car in the rear view mirror following him, but it's not his dad at the wheel, it's his stepmother, Karen, choking back tears as she tries to catch up to Nick, one of the film's most powerful moments.

The performances make up for any lapses in the direction and screenplay. Steve Carell's performance as David rivals his Oscar-nominated performance in Foxcatcher and the immensely talented Timothee Chalamet proves that his Oscar-nominated performance in Call Me By Your Name was no accident, this kid has some serious acting chops. Maura Tierney's Karen is quite moving at times, as is Amy Ryan's solid work as Nick's mother. The film's epilogue reveals that Nick has now been clean for 8 years, but it is important to remember that this doesn't necessarily mean anything. This film seems to be aimed at those who love an addict rather than the addict himself and, on that level, it hits a bullseye.

Better off Dead
Savage Steve Holland is one of the busiest producer/director/writer/animators in the business with a wicked sense of humor and imagination to spare. He made an impressive debut as director and screenwriter of an original comic farce called Better off Dead which also put its young star on the map.

This brassy comic nightmare stars John Cusack as Lane Holland,a hyper-sensitive high schooler who loves to ski and is madly in love with a girl named Beth (Amanda Wyss), who dumps him as the story opens, but Lane does connect with a foreign exchange student named Monique (Diane Franklin) who lives across the street with a chubby nerd (Dan Schneider) and his domineering mother. Lane is also dealing with his nutty parents (David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby). Dad is worried about the car Lane bought two years ago and is sitting comatose on the front lawn and Mom is coming up with crazy concoctions in the kitchen, including a dessert that is able to walk off the plate. Oh, and Lane is also being stalked by a psychotic paperboy who is determined to get the two dollars that Lane's family owes him.

If you're looking for a film comedy steeped in realism, you've come to the wrong place. From Holland's crazed animated opening credits, we know immediately that we are not in for the typical 80's teen comedy. There's a scene where Lane is doodling a picture of Beth that comes to life and ridicules him. During his one-day employment at a fast food employment, Lane makes a hamburger that comes to life and sings rock and roll. Lane's mother is observed cooking something on the stove that seems to resemble disassembled pieces of octopus. I also loved the bit of everyone in town, strangers and television characters included, asking Lane if it was all right for them to date Beth since she dumped him. There's also an Asian sportscaster who follows Lane around who sounds exactly like Howard Cosell.
Savage Steve Holland just throws out the rule book of movie making here and makes no apologies for it.

This was only the fifth film appearance of John Cusack but you would never know it from the ease and charm with which he commands the screen here. Cusack proved here that he had what it takes to be a movie star. Ogden Stiers and Darby also score as his parents as does a pre-"Booger" Curtis Armstrong as Lane's BFF who wears an Abe Lincoln hat for the entire running time. Vincent Schiavelli plays another popular school teacher just like he did in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and another Fast Times alum, the late Taylor Negron who played the pizza delivery guy in that film, appears briefly here as a wise-cracking mailman. It ain't Merchant/Ivory, but Savage Steve Holland and his crazy rep company definitely bring the funny.

Envy
Considering the talent in front of and behind the camera, the 2004 comedy Envy should have been a better than it is. The basic idea of this movie is a good one, but it degenerates into a lot of silliness making it difficult to stay engaged.

Tim (Ben Stiller) and Nick (Jack Black) are best friends, and co-workers who commute to work together every day. Nick is always coming up with outrageous get rich quick schemes that Tim usually talks Nick out of. One day Nick decides that he needs to invent an aerosol spray that when you spray it on dog poop, or any kind of poop for that matter, it simply disappears. Tim tells Nick it's a stupid idea, but Nick ends up actually inventing the spray and it turns him into an instant billionaire. He tears down his house and builds a mansion and buys a horse. Though he is in denial about it, Tim is consumed with jealousy regarding Nick's success.

Complications arrive when environmentalists want to know where the poop goes when it disappears and this seemingly minor issue begins to derail political aspirations for Nick's wife (Amy Poehler). Tim also meets a bum in a bar (Christopher Walken) who Tim confesses everything to and decides to fan the flames of Tim's jealousy via blackmail.

A story about the toxic effect of jealousy and greed was an intriguing premise upon which to base a movie, but screenwriter Steve Adams lets the idea get away from when. Instead of thoughtfully exploring these subjects through a light comedic eye, he goes off the deep end with silly slapstick comedy and some really ugly character motivations for Tim that really test the character's likability quotient. Once Tim shoots Nick's horse with a bow and arrow and then buries the animal, this movie started to lose me.

On the positive side, we do have Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson behind the camera who is a competent storyteller more than capable of establishing a proper canvas for a story and then taking it into squirm territory. The whole environmental angle of the story was one I really didn't see coming, but Levinson doesn't shy away from it.

I also was impressed with the casting of Jack Black as the straight man in the story, a refreshing change of pace for him. He actually puts most of the burden of the comedy on Stiller, who delivers for the most part. I loved Stiller's monologue at the film's climax where he comes clean with Black's character...a long and rambling monologue that Stiller actually nails. Rachel Weisz and Poehler's roles are thankless and Walken's blackmailing bum is a matter of taste. It's a really great premise that gets lost in a lot of silly slapstick but it does wrap nicely.

The Matchmaker (1958)
Fans of the Broadway musical and movie Hello Dolly! might be interested in checking out 1958's The Matchmaker, which is the primary source of the musical.

Based on a play by Thornton Wilder, this is the story of an eccentric widow named Dolly Gallagher Levi, who works a professional matchmaker in turn of the century New York. She has been hired by a wealthy Yonkers businessman named Horace Vandergelder to find him a bride, but Dolly has been secretly leading the man in circles because she wants the man for herself. Unfortunately, Vandergelder is planning to propose to a pretty milliner named Irene Malloy, but she is distracted by Vandergelder's clerk, Cornelius Hackl, who sneaks to New York with his co-worker Barnaby Tucker, who fall hard for Irene and her assistant, Minnie Fay.

John Michael Hayes, who wrote the screenplay for Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, has done an admirable job of adapting this play for the screen, which premiered on Broadway in 1955 with Ruth Gordon playing Dolly. As someone whose initial exposure to this piece was the 1969 movie starring Barbra Streisand, it was nice to see the role of Dolly played by an actress of appropriate age, but I've learned over the years that most productions of this play and of Hello Dolly!, the role of Dolly is cast with a more mature actress.

Director Joseph Anthony, who also directed the film version of The Rainmaker, has done an effective job of opening the play up a little but remaining true to the piece. He also made the story more accessible to audiences by breaking the 4th wall and having characters speak directly to the camera, which comes off forced in other films, but really works here. I loved when Cornelius asks if someone in the movie theater has left their seat to get popcorn. Also loved the finale where Dolly asks each character what they believe the moral of the story was.

Six years after winning an Oscar for Come Back Little Sheba, Shirley Booth is completely enchanting as Dolly, a character light years away from her character in the William Inge drama and Paul Ford is at his blustery best as Horace Vandergelder. Shirley MacLaine made a lovely Irene Malloy and Robert Morse is a total scene stealer, reprising his Broadway role as Barnaby Tucker. I did find Anthony Perkins a little one-note as Cornelius, but I was able to forgive. The film is beautifully photographed in black and white and the ladies are draped in gorgeous Edith Head costumes. A delightful piece of classic theater vividly brought to the screen.

I HATED Envy with a passion. Made my list of worst movies.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Bernard and Doris
HBO triumphed with a lavishly mounted movie called Bernard and Doris that recalls the relationship between tobacco millionairess Doris Duke and her gay butler, Bernard Lafferty, who upon Duke's death, became the executor of her estate. . We are warned before the opening credits roll that some of what we're about to see is based on fact and that some of it is not...whatever that means.

The 2006 movie opens with the very wealthy Doris Duke (Oscar winner Susan Sarandon) firing her current butler because the cantaloupe he served her was cold. We then observe Bernard Lafferty (Ralph Fiennes) arrive on the estate in a run down economy car to interview for the job. Bernard is a former butler to Elizabeth Taylor and Peggy Lee and is also an alcoholic, fresh from six months in rehab. As he begins working for Ms. Duke, the only rule in the house is that he doesn't drink her liquor. This is the beginning of en employee/employer relationship that turns into an unconventional friendship that Duke and Lafferty don't see coming, but the viewer does immediately.

Show business veteran and Christopher Guest rep company member Bob Balaban deserves the lion's credit for bringing a gloss and dash of originality to a story that isn't terribly original, as anyone who has seen the 1989 Best Picture Driving Miss Daisy can attest, but it's Balaban's technique in telling the story that makes a lot of what goes on here very entertaining and keeps it surprisingly economic. Loved the way Doris Duke's backstory is laid out for the viewer through newspaper clippings that frame the opening credits. Balaban reveals backstory for Bernard without the use of dialogue as well. We don't learn that he's an alcoholic until about fifteen minutes in when he's observed emptying a flask into the bathroom sink and we don't learn that he's gay until he is caught in a private moment at Doris' dressing table trying on her jewelry.

Hugh Costello's intelligent screenplay effectively crafts a relationship between two very different people who we know are very different, but what I loved here is the fact that the principals at the beginning of the movie are the same people at the end of the movie. Doris never apologizes for being a hard drinking, pill popping, party gal who has affairs with decades younger piano players and Bernard's dedication to his job that he puts way above having any kind of personal job is admirable and also a little sad. I do love that little scene near the beginning of the film where he is talking to the rest of Ms. Duke's staff about how they better fall in line. I also enjoyed the fact that this Doris Duke enjoyed her wealth, never flaunted it or got in people's faces with it.

HBO and Balaban spared no expense in bringing this elegant story to the screen featuring breathtaking art direction/set direction, lush music, and some stunning costumes. As always, Susan Sarandon offers another polished powerhouse turn as Doris Duke that might initially remind viewers of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, but Sarandon brings a humanity to this character than Dunaway never brought to Joan Crawford and Feinnes is sophistication personified as the sensitive Bernard. I love the scene near the end of the film with a dying Doris and Bernard discussing Doris' funeral arrangements where he is wearing one of her dresses and a pair of her earrings. Sarandon, Feinnes, and Balaban all received richly deserved Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for their work here. There's also a solid supporting turn from the late James Rebhorn as Duke's lawyer, who becomes a completely hissable villain before the credits roll. A deliciously sophisticated story whose basis in fact probably amps its appeal.

The Upside
The 2017 fact based comedy-drama The Upside is an Americanized remake of a French film that, despite a somewhat predictable story, manages to remain completely captivating thanks to winning performances by the stars.

This remake of the 2011 film The Intouchables stars Kevin Hart as Dell, an ex-con on parole and divorced dad, who actually gets hired as a caregiver for a widowed, quadriplegic
billionaire named Phillip Lacasse, who is paralyzed from the neck down.

I've written a lot of reviews about movies that force the viewer to accept a lot of hard to swallow stuff in order to enjoy the film and despite this being a fact-based story, there is one thing the viewer must accept here and that this the basic premise of the entire story. As enjoyable as it was watching it happen, I don't believe that a severely handicapped man with enough money to buy the New York Nets (but not the Yankees), would hire a completely unqualified ex-con, to be his caregiver. We're talking about a person who has to have complete access to your life, has to be able to feed you, carry you from your bed to chair and back again, and has to change your catheter on a regular basis in order for you to urinate. If the viewer is able to accept that a man with more money than God would hire a guy fresh out of jail for this position, then accepting what happens between these two very different people shouldn't be a problem.

Once Dell has been hired the movie does move down a pretty predictable path...we see the initial conflicts over things Dell doesn't want to do. We learn of the obvious opposing tastes in music and recreation that are going to come up and, of course, it was only a matter of time when Dell it would decide it was time for his new boss to get laid and takes the matter into his own hands, a move that would almost destroy the relationship that had been so delicately built so far, further complicated by Phillip's executive assistant, Yvonne (Nicole Kidman), who fought Dell's hiring from jump and kept him on his toes with her "three strikes" policy.

What I did enjoy about Jon Hartmere's screenplay is that he does make these principal characters three dimensional people who have an acute sense of humanity and doing what's right. I liked the fact that Dell was not crafted with a complete thug sensibility. He is well paid for this position and it was so refreshing to see him doing the right thing with the money he was making...that is, taking care of his family. His very first paycheck he signs over to his ex-wife and the scene near the end of the film where he buys his ex and son a new house might ignite a tear duct.

It's the performances by this very special cast that really give this film an air of true originality. Kevin Hart brings equal doses of humor and warmth to his Dell and Bryan Cranston is Oscar-worthy in the very physically demanding role of Phillip Lacasse. Most viewers don't realize how taxing it is on an actor physically to play a quadriplegic. The scene in the restaurant where Phillip gets hot coffee spilled on him is a real eye-opener. Nicole Kidman brings much more to the role of Yvonne than the screenplay provides, Golshifteh Farahani, so memorable as Adam Driver's wife in Paterson is lovely as Phillip's physical therapist, and Tate Donavan deserves mention as a tight-assed neighbor of Phillip's. Handsome production values, including a lush music score by Rob Simonsen are the frosting on the cake in this sometimes moving and consistently funny look at a movie relationship we've seen frequently but rarely rivets us to the screen the way this one does.

The Dirt
After the unprecedented success of Bohemian Rhapsody, a barrage of rock and roll biopics are probably on their way to the big screen and the first of them is an overheated look at Motley Crue called The Dirt that shocks, repels, and on some levels, does manage to entertain. To be fair, it should be mentioned that this review comes from someone who knows nothing about Motley Crue except for the fact that Tommy Lee was once married to Heather Locklear.

This 2019 Netflix musical drama traces the humble beginnings of the group, starting with the troubled childhood of Frank Ferrana Jr, whose abusive childhood would lead him to channel in his anger in music and change his name to Nikki Sixx. Along with eternal child drummer Tommy Lee, aging guitar player Mick Mars, and arrogant sex machine Vince McNeil would become one of rock and roll's biggest influences as well as one of it's most destructive forces.

Based on a book by Tommy Lee, this in-your-face look at the legendary rock group covers some three decades in the lives of the legendary rockers but seems to concentrate more on the bad times than the good. Framed by an onscreen narration by the entire band that seems to have been written strictly for laughs, the story presented seems to be a direct contradiction of said narration, a lot of which is delivered directly to the camera as in I, Tonya, presenting a lot of scenes of destroying hotel rooms, drunken sex and drug escapades in nightclubs, vomiting on strippers, and even provides a glimpse at the drunk driving incident involving Vince Neil that resulted in someone's death and his conviction of vehicular manslaughter, which got him 30 days in jail.

The film attempts to provide the group with some redemption for the viewer after this incident as Nikki Sixx initiates an attempt of the group to get sober, which only leads to their eventual destruction, initiated by Neil, who according to this screenplay, believed that the ir ability to produce great music was predicated on their partying. Neil is also presented as a guy who couldn't keep his fly zipped, sexing up any female who glanced his way. This film consistently attempts to shock and repel the viewer and often succeeds. There is a scene set at a hotel swimming pool with the guys and Ozzy Osbourne that I won't go into detail about here, but it literally turned my stomach. Tommy's marriage to Heather Locklear is briefly touched on and according to this movie, the occasion was just another big destructive party.

Jeff Tremaine's direction is a little on the manic side and there are a couple of solid performances from Machine Gun Kelly as Tommy Lee and Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx. Tony Cavalero made a terrific Ozzy Osbourne but this film just seems to be trying too hard and just made me want to re-watch Bohemian Rhapsody.

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Robin Williams' mind was something that some of the greatest talent in Hollywood adored, marveled, and tried to figure out. It was this amazing mind that would find its fruition in a career that would earn Williams three Emmys. seven Golden Globes, and an Oscar. His incredible career is chronicled in a joyous 2018 documentary called Robin Wiliams: Come Inside My Mind that will have you laughing out loud one minute and fighting tears the next. It's also that very rare celebrity documentary where I learned things about the star and his career that I never knew before.

The documentary features commentary from his loved ones, celebrity co-workers, and Robin himself, starting with his childhood where he was raised by a quiet car salesman father and a mother who loved to make people laugh. We are even treated to a clip of Robin and his mom talking about the entertainment value of whoopee cushions. The film documents his cavity prone years in a prep school, much like the one in Dead Poets Society and his early discovery of improvisation which actually led to his eventual landing at Julliard, where he entered the prestigious school the same year as Christopher Reeve. I didn't know that he and Reeve were roommates at Julliard and we are treated to a home movie of the christening of Robin's son, Zak, which features Reeve who is Zak's godfather.

The stiffness of Julliard was a little too confining for Williams who eventually leaves, though he does share about the joy he felt one day when he actually made the head of the acting school, John Houseman, laugh, whom he referred to as "Buddha." Scott Marshall, son of the late Garry Marshall shares how it was something he said to his father that led to Williams' history making guest appearance on Happy Days that was spun off into Mork and Mindy. Marshall shared that this was the only episode of Happy Days that received a standing ovation from the live audience watching the taping.

In addition to the christening of his son, there is a whole lot of vintage film and photographs that I have never seen before, including some footage of a very young Williams doing improv with members of an improv class he was taking straight out of high school. We are also treated to outtakes from Mork and Mindy, Good Morning Vietnam, Patch Adams, and One Hour Photo.

The documentary does not shy away from Williams' history with drugs and alcohol either. We are reminded that he started snorting cocaine during season two of Mork and Mindy and was partying with John Belushi the night before he died. Williams did get sober eventually and even incorporated his experiences as an alcoholic and addict into his comedy with a bold and funny frankness. I also loved when he is asked who he thought had a quicker mind than his. The answer will definitely surprise you.

In addition to Williams himself, commentary is offered along the way from his first wife Valerie, his son Zak, his half-brother, Billy Crystal (who shares a couple of messages Williams left on his answering machine), Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Elayne Boosler (who revealed having an affair with the man, news to me), Lewis Black, Mark Romanek, who directed One Hour Photo, Pam Dawber (who got very choked up and was unable to talk about Wiliams' death), and Bobcat Goldthwait, who directed Robin in World''s Greatest Dad, who revealed that in the final scene of that film where Robin jumps in the swimming pool naked, that was all Robin's idea, Goldthwait wanted him to keep his clothes on. A one-of-a-kind documentary on a one of a kind performer that produced tears of laughter and tears of sadness.

It's Love I'm After
The 1937 comedy It's Love I'm After is a somewhat predictable comedy that's still watchable thanks to sparkling performances by the leads.

Leslie Howard plays Basil Underwood, a charismatic actor who is currently appearing on Broadway in Romeo and Juliet with onstage and offstage amour Joyce Arden (Bette Davis), a flamboyant actress who has been in a steamy love affair with Basil for well over a decade. One night, a glamorous socialite named Marcia West (Olivia de Havilland) attends the show with her fiancee, Henry (Patric Knowles). Marcia falls instantly in love with Basil from her seat in the balcony and runs backstage after the performance to profess her love.

Joyce is furious even though Basil tries to assure her that Marcia means nothing to him. Basil proposes to Joyce for the 12th time, but in order to clear his conscience, Basil travels to Marcia's family's estate in order to make Marcia fall out of love with him.

Casey Robinson's screenplay based on a story called "Gentleman After Midnight" is an early rather clever variation on what has come to be a staple of movie plotting...celebrity obsession and the crazy things it can make people do. The witty banter that is slung between Basil and Joyce is also a lot of fun, especially they're under-the-breath remarks that they make to each other during the performance of Romeo and Juliet.

I also loved the relationship that's established between Basil Underwood and Joyce Arden. It's obvious from the moment we see them whispering onstage to each other during the performance that these two are nuts about each other and couldn't possibly live without each other, but the script never forgets that they're actors first. I love when the curtain comes down on the play and Basil and Joyce argue about which one of them the audience is really applauding for.

Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland show a real flair for romantic comedy, a relatively new genre for both of them, but for me, the real star of this film is Leslie Howard. My only other exposure to Howard before this was Gone with the Wind and it was so much fun watching him chew the scenery as a vain hammy actor who considers everything a cue for a monologue. I loved when dinner at Marcia's estate motivates Basil to go straight into Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew which was ironic, because Basil and Joyce's relationship definitely had a Petruchio/Katharina air to it. Howard really makes Davis and de Havilland work for the spotlight here in this lovely romantic comedy that still provides laughs over 70 years after it was made.

One True Thing
Some stylish directorial touches and three richly complex lead performances are the primary selling points of a heartbreaking contemporary soap opera called One True Thing that with proper attention paid, should put the viewer through a myriad of emotions.

At the request of her self-absorbed writer/professor/father (William Hurt), an ambitious workaholic writer for New York magazine named Ellen Gulden (Renee Zellweger) takes a leave of absence from her job to become caregiver for her mother, Kate (Meryl Streep), who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Karen Croner's screenplay is based on a novel by Anna Quindlen, which is a fictionalized account of Quindlen's experience with her own mother when she was diagnosed with and eventually succumbed to ovarian cancer. Croner has effectively framed this tearjerker around a criminal investigation as the film opens with Ellen being questioned by a DA about the circumstances around her mother's death and how Ellen might have had a hand in it.

The story takes on a couple of squirm-worthy layers, courtesy of Professor George Gulden, Kate's husband and Ellen's father. This character is established immediately as the villain of the piece as he callously asks Ellen to give up her life in New York to care for her mother without even telling Ellen's mother what he has done. His denial about what is happening to Kate allows him to put her care completely in his daughter's hands, despite the fact that Ellen really has no idea what she's doing but her father has given her no choice.

George Gulden is not the only character here painted in serious mud tones...Ellen initially fights her father tooth and nail, but then protects her mother when she finds out that her father is not the man she thought he was. Kate's denial about what is happening to her has her internal pain matching the external pain of her disease, not to mention her own way of protecting her husband, a man we're really not sure is worth the protection he is afforded here.

Director Carl Franklin paints some bold imaginative pictures in presenting this story that even, at times, bring a little levity to a grim and intense situation. Love the scene where Ellen tries to prepare a luncheon for her mother's women's group and the camera pans over the the demilitarized zone that she makes of the kitchen where everything, including the recipe cards, are covered in chocolate. Also loved the scene where Ellen asks her Dad to cut back at work in the same room where Mom is sleeping, forcing the argument to be entirely whispered. The moment at Thanksgiving dinner where George finds out his mentor has never heard of his novel is also fraught with appropriate tension.

The performances are first rate, led by the luminous and mesmerizing work of the extraordinary Streep, a performance that earned her an 11th Oscar nomination, the only nomination the film earned, but Zellweger and especially Hurt make every moment they have onscreen count as well. Hurt is especially riveting, fully investing in a character that the viewer often wants to strangle. As for the criminal investigation into Kate's death, even that provides a reveal that we don't see coming. A genuine tearjerker whose stark realism keeps a cap on the expected soap sud quality of the story.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
From the "So bad it's funny" school of filmmaking comes the bizarre 1970 curio Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a crude and raunchy tale of sexual debauchery that is allegedly supposed to shed a realistic light on show business in Hollywood, but collapses under a barrage of ridiculous writing and unbelievably bad performances that pretty much destroyed the careers of most of its cast.

Sex-ploitation master of the 60's and 70's Russ Meyer and the late Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert are the guilty parties responsible for bringing this mess of a story to the screen. This is the story of a female rock band called the Kerry Affair who come to Hollywood accompanied by their wimpy manager, Harris, in order to become stars. They are welcomed to California by lead singer Kerry's Aunt Susan, who also promises Kerry a large inheritance. They perform at a party thrown by a rock producer named Z-,Man Barzell, who takes over as their manager, changes their name to the Carrie Nations, which leaves poor Harris time to fall for a self-absorbed porn star named Ashley.

This in-name only sequel has absolutely nothing to do with the 1967 film based on Jackie Susann's novel and, if the truth be told, makes that film look like Citizen Kane. I spent the majority of the running time either giggling or scratching my head, wondering what a respected film critic like Roger Ebert was thinking when he penned this outrageously over-the top tale of sexual machinations in Hollywood that features women using their bodies to get what they want, women abusing men, women loving women, men pretending to be women, women pretending to be men, drugs, suicide attempts, and a character who makes a silly transformation into a character who resembles Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show who takes center stage in a bizarre and bloody finale of an already bizarre story that completely defies logic and makes no apologies for it.

The movie appears to have been made on a budget of about $100 and features an appalling, headache-inducing music score by Stu Phillips that defies description. The acting in this movie is unbelievably bad. Russ Meyer clearly told his cast that real acting consisted of speaking as loudly and quickly as they could. 60's sex goddess Edy Williams attracts some attention as Ashley the porn star, and the only other actors who continued to work after this film were Harrison Page and Charles Napier. Phyllis Davis, who played Aunt Susan, did spend a season as one of the skit players on Love American Style and Dolly Read, who played Kelly, never worked again and eventually married comedian Dick Martin. This movie was clearly intended to shock and titillate the viewer, but it's so dated and silly
and badly acted, that now it just confuses and bored the viewer. This has to be seen to believed.