Gideon58's Reviews

The Long Walk Home
Remember back in the 50's when Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to move from the front of the bus to the back? Well, the ramifications of that event are dramatized in an emotionally manipulative drama from 1990 called The Long Walk Home that can stir strong emotions if caught in the right mood and is beautifully anchored by the performances of two Oscar winning actresses.

It's 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama and word has spread about Mrs. Parks' arrest and in protest, the black citizens of Montgomery organize a boycott where they refuse to ride the bus anymore. Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek) is an affluent housewife and mother who initially dismisses the boycott as something that will blow over in a few days. Of course, it doesn't and it starts affecting Mrs. Thompson's ability to run her household because she is so dependent on her black maid, Odessa (Whoopi Goldberg). Unfortunately, Odessa lives quite a distance rom her employer and walking to work is doing serious damage to her feet, so Miriam makes the fateful decision to pick up Odessa and bring her to work herself two days a week.
As a black man, I felt shame as this story unfolded before me, because I knew about Rosa Parks, but this movie was where I first learned about this boycott. The events here were news to me just as the events of the 2016 film Hidden Figures John Cork's emotionally charged screenplay is unapologetic in its presentation of the racial climate in 1955 Montgomery. LOVED the way the very first scene in the movie beautifully sets up what about to happen without dialogue. We see three black women in maid unforms get on a bus to pay their fare then get off the bus and go to the rear entrance of the bus because they aren't allowed to enter the front of the bus. Cork's unabashed use of the "N" word also was a bit unsettling. I don't think Quentin Tarantino used the word this much in any of his screenplays.

This movie aroused a lot of anger in this reviewer but it didn't come from where I expected. I was not bothered by the bigoted whites initiating all of the racial tension in this film as I was b y this Miriam Thompson woman. This was a good woman with a good heart and not a bigoted bone in her body but she spends the majority of the running time with her head buried in the sand, in denial of the seriousness of what was going and refusing to take a real stand one way or the other, which was infuriating. The scene at the beginning of the final act where she executes an obviously well-rehearsed speech to her husband about how she was going to do what she felt was right and almost lost her husband in the process, made me want to cheer, but it was too little too late.

Sissy Spacek is Oscar-worthy, in one of her richest performances, full of warmth and intelligence and Whoopi Goldberg's beautifully internalized Odessa matched her perfectly. Dwight Schulze was surprisingly effective as Miriam's bigoted husband and Dylan Baker does another of his patented greasy turns as Miriam's brother-in-law. I almost didn't recognize Ving Rhames as Odessa's husband because he had a full head of hair and that was Mary Steenburgen narrating. George Fenton's music was another big plus in this riveting drama that I took way too long to watch.

Bottoms
A novice filmmaker named Emma Seligman scores with an edgy and raucous black comedy called Bottoms that turns teen comedies like Mean Girls on their ear thanks to a deft and uncompromising screenplay, stylish direction and some star-making performances.

The 2023 comedy is about two plain lesbian high school students named Josie and PJ who are trying to figure out some way to have sex with the prettiest girls in school before they graduate. The girls gain attention when they hit Jeff, the football team's dim-witted quarterback with their car and decide to amp their popularity by telling people that they spent time in juvie. As a last ditch attempt for some female attention, they decide to start a female fight blub that will allow them physical contact with other girls, but are thrown when the girls who join the club begin actually feeling empowered from the group, something Josie and PJ did not plan on. Throw in a subplot of a 50 year rivalry with another school that is supposed to climax with Jeff's murder.

Director and Emma Seligman really goes for broke here with an often shocking screenplay that doesn't hold anything back in terms of squirm-worthy situations and often shocking dialogue. I can't remember the last movie where I heard the word "vagina" as much as it is utilized here. These girls Josie and PJ are out and proud gay females who have been this way as long as they can remember and have no problem with going after girls they know are heterosexual. The opening scenes where the girls get all tongue-tied whenever they get near the exotic Isabel and Cindy Crawford-look-alike Brittany garner major laughs. Mixed emotions arise for the viewer as we witness Josie and PJ's disappointment as the girls who show up for the initial meeting of the fight club are plain Janes like themselves. It' unsettling when they are actually torn between the empowerment that happens among the women while all they are thinking about is having sex.

Seligman's direction displays an imaginative cinematic eye and a deep affection for the teen comedies of the 8i0's and 90's which get a definite facelift here. Familiar themes from classic teen comedies are approached here but with lesbian characters everything takes on an air of originality that is refreshing and at, times, shocking. Can't recall the last time I saw a film that featured actual physical fight scenes between male and female characters and Seligman's camera gets right in the center of it, including an eye-popping battle royale finale shot in slow motion that displays ridiculous style.

Seligman gets a couple of star-making performances from newcomers Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott as Josie and PJ, respectively. Also loved the endlessly versatile Nicholas Galitzine, so good earlier this year as the gay prince in Red White and Royal Blue as the totally straight and totally moronic Jeff. Also have to give a shout out to Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch, making an impressive acting debut as a history teacher with marriage issues. This one caught me by surprise, there's a lot of fun and laughs to be had here. I do have to admit that this is another one of those films where I don't understand the title.

Garden State
Zach Braff impresses as the screenwriter, director, and star of 2004's Garden State. a loopy and unconventional character study/black comedy that does make a couple of odd detours during its final act, but is engaging entertainment for the most part thanks to Braff's undeniable style as a director and at terrific cast.

Braff plays Andrew Largeman, a struggling actor in LA who returns to his New jersey hometown for the first time in a decade for his mother's funeral, where emotional issues and old wounds are exposed regarding this young man and his indecisiveness regarding whether or not he really wants to heal.
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Needless to say, since the central character is a struggling actor, it is easy to assume that there is some autobiographical elements to this screenplay and that, for Braff, this was sort of a way doing the therapy he might have needed at some point on screen, like Dito Monteil's film A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, but there's no way to know for sure. What is clear is that this Andrew Largeman is a really messed up guy and has spent his whole life shielding his pain. Around the halfway point of the film, we learn that the young man has been on medication he didn't really need and that he has been in therapy with a psychiatrist, who happens to be his father. This guy has issues.

It's the possible romance with a vivacious young woman named Sam, who has her own issues, that could be the beginning of a way out of Andrew's pain, but he's fighting every step of the way, but eventually the true issues of Andrew's pain are peeled away like an onion and just when there seems to be a light at the end of Andrew's tunnel, we get a couple of weird detours that just distract the viewer. Though I did love Andrew reuniting with all of his old buddies before he left for LA. I loved when one guy, who now works as a bulk store clerk, tells Andrew that he thought Andrew had committed suicide.

Braff employs some often dizzying camerawork to his story, with strong assists from cinematographer Lawrence Sher and editor Myron Kerstein. Braff has a solid cats behind him too...Natalie Portman lights up the screen, as always, as Sam and there's great work from Peter Sarsgaard as Andy's BFF Mark, Ian Holm as Andy's father, and cameos by Jackie Hoffman, Jean Smart, and Jim Parsons. A surprisingly solid vanity project that the viewer will eventually get wrapped up in.

Beau is Afraid
The director of Hereditary and Midsommar takes a big swing and a miss with 2023's Beau is Afraid, an overlong, and pretentious character study/horror/drama/black comedy that is so all over the place and so unsure of exactly it wants to say or I didn't know what it was trying to say, that this reviewer has to classify the film with a handful of films that I just didn't understand and I had mentally checked out less than two thirds of the way through the film.

Beau is a mild-mannered bundle of neuroses and anxieties who keeps his therapist on his toes thanks to long-standing issues Beau has with his mother. Beau is about to take a flight out of town to see his mother but a bizarre set of circumstances keep Beau from making his flight and he learns that his mother has died shortly afterwards, news that sends Beau on a completely illogical and one-of-a-kind emotional journey to get back home and resolve the aforementioned mentions with his mother.

Director and screenwriter Ari Aster has crafted a tale that divides itself up into chapters, that starts out quite interestingly, but gets less and less so as this bizarre story progresses. The opening chapter finds Beau getting kept out of his apartment while the odd characters from his neighborhood manage to get in and party in his home while locking him out. It's not long before they are after him and in an attempt to escape gets hit by a truck driven by a couple who turn out to be a doctor and an important CEO who take Beau in, but keep him a virtual prisoner, leading Beau to escape to find a theatrical troupe where he is the audience and the leading character, which finally leads to Beau's long-awaited confrontation with the real demons that have been tormenting him.

Aster asks a lot of her audience in terms of patience because this story lays down an undeniably interesting canvas and continues to let the central character fight to get answers that everyone seems to be keeping from him purposely. The film reminded me of the Adam Sandler movie Punch Drunk Love with its relentless torture of the central character, providing so little mental solace, not to mention actual danger that this guy doesn't really incite or deserve. The film is filled with bizarre set pieces and situations that defy any kind of explanation. There's a scene where Beau gets into an overflowing bathtub that he didn't fill and looks up and sees a guy he doesn't clinging to the bathroom ceiling like Spiderman trying not to fall in the tub on top of Beau. This movie is jam-packed with "And then I woke up" scenes, but refuses to admit that's what they are. And they get more and more bizarre as the film goes on and the film does go on and on and on. There was no legitimizing this film's three-hour length. If you're going to make a three hour movie, something in the movie has to be rooted in some kind of realism and we get nothing here.

The role of Beau is an actor's dream and Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix puts his heart and soul into this performance, it's just a shame that everything else in the film is working against him. The film features some incredible art direction, editing, visual effects, makeup, and music, but it's all for nothing because I just didn't understand what the hell was going on here.

Goodbye Columbus
Despite some steamy chemistry between the stars, 1969's Goodbye Columbus hasn't aged too well, but it does mark the film debut of a gorgeous actress named Ali McGraw.

Based on a best-selling novel by Phillip Roth, the story of the romance that develops between a handsome and intelligent librarian named Neil and a pampered Jewish American Princess named Brenda, who has some unconventional beliefs regarding pregnancy and birth control.

Arnold Schulman's adaptation of Roth's novel was allegedly kind of groundbreaking back in the day due to its frank talk about sex and birth control and a couple of very sexy love scenes between the stars, but whenever the young lovers aren't in bed we get a lot of tired romantic comedy cliches like the mother's instant hatred of Neil or the kid sister who follows Neil around or Brenda's dad complaining about "kids today" in every other scene.

I guess it was supposed to shock 1969 movie audiences because this was probably the first film with a screenplay featuring the word "diaphram", not to mention the fact that Neil is the one who brings up the whole subject of birth control instead of Brenda, which is what you'd expect. Probably considered pretty daring subject matter back in 1969, most of what goes on here seems kind of tame in 2023, which leaves the viewer with some discreetly filmed sex scenes, some possibly offensive Jewish stereo types, and a terrific performance by Jack Klugman as Benda's father.

Larry Peerce's direction is mostly focused on getting the sex scenes past the sensors and more care could have definitely been put into the rest of the film, which moves at a snail's pace. Richard Benjamin is quite charming as Neil though, but Michael Meyers' twitchy performance as Brenda's brother worked my last nerve. According to the IMDB, Bette Midler, Michael Nouri, Susan Lucci, and Jacklyn Smith all appear as extras in the wedding scene, but Nouri is the only one I spotted. The bloom has definitely worn off this cinematic rose.

The Grass Harp
The recent passing of Piper Laurie motivated my first viewing of 1995's The Grass Harp a warm and emotionally charged coming of age period piece that works thanks to solid direction from a second generation artist and a spectacular all-star cast all working at the top of their game.

Based on a novel by Truman Capote, the setting is the depression era south where we meet a young man named Collin (Edward Furlong) who, after the death of his parents, is sent to live with his two spinster Aunts, the Talbo Sisters. Verena Talbo (Sissy Spacek) is this town's Elvira Gulch/Ebeneezer Scrooge, the wealthy witch who owns half the town and her sister, Dolly (Laurie) is a dreamy-eyed loner who has never been with a man and spends all her time concocting her own medicine with the assistance of the Talbo's cook and Dolly's BFF Catherine (Nell Carter). When Verena convinces a slick doctor from out of town (Jack Lemmon) to invest in patenting Dolly's medicine, Dolly, Catherine, and Collin flee the house and move into a treehouse. They are eventually joined by a retired judge (Walter Matthau), a romantic rival of Collin's (Sean Patrick Flanery) and a female evangelist with 15 children (Mary Steenburgen).

Just like Breakfast at Tiffany's this is just not the kind of story one expects from Truman Capote, but is apparently based on Capote's own childhood. The adaptation of Capote's book by Stirling Stilliphant (In the Heat of the Night) and Kirk Ellis, who wrote the miniseries John Adams is rich with small town sensibility and is a little on the manipulative side, setting up some definite black hats and white hats in the story, but the manipulation totally works.

Walter Matthau's son, Charles is in the director's chair for this one, who you might remember from his film debut playing Glenda Jackson's son in his father's film House Calls. According to the IMDB, Charles has 8 directorial credits but he proves that he may have found his real niche in this business, crafting a nostalgic look at a time gone by, a very turbulent time where racism was still an issue and it is addressed here, but it doesn't overpower the story and is not pounded over our heads with a sledgehammer.

Charles Matthau also manages to pull some remarkable performances from this sparkling all-star cast. Sissy Spacek's icy Verena is a revelation because it's the first time I can recall in her long and distinguished career that she has played the straight up villain of the piece and she crushes it. The director's dad is terrific as the judge as are Roddy McDowell as a gossipy barber, Joe Don Baker as the Sheriff, Charles Durning as the preacher, and Bonnie Bartlett as his wife. But it's the gifted Piper Laurie, who actually is the standout in this amazing cast as the fragile and vulnerable Dolly, reminding me again what an incredible actress this woman was who never had the career she deserved. She's Oscar-worthy here and this film is appointment viewing for serious acting students.

Down Low
Falling right behind Fool's Parade as the second worst film of 2023, Get Low is a silly and snooze-worthy black comedy that features plot points as old as chestnuts and attempts to contemporize them by the fact that the central characters are gay.

Gary is a wealthy businessman and closeted homosexual who meets a gay masseur named Cameron who, upon learning that he will be Gary's guide into the world of homosexuality. Cameron goes on a gay app and finds someone who he thinks will be appropriate for Gary and gets the guy come over, but through some bizarre circumstances, ends up dead. Cameron decides the solution to their problem is to go back to the app, where he finds someone else on the site whose profile implies that he enjoys sex with corpses, so he invites him over too.

Screenwriters Phoebe Fisher and Lukas Gage, who plays Cameron, seem to be some sort of show-biz oriented Will & Grace who have come up with this, what seems to be, on the surface, a black comedy and believe the lack of imagination in the scripting is easy to overlook thanks to gay characters speaking frankly and participating in gay sexual situations. I did like the fact that Gary was married with two children when his family found out about him and left him. Another layer was added to the character we didn't see coming when it's revealed he has an inoperable brain tumor, which seemed to be superfluous initially but it does work its way back into the story leading to an absolutely ridiculous finale

There's so much old school scripting going on here. The scenes with Gary trying to hide the body while Cameron dealt with the drug-riddled neighbor played by Judith Light, reminded me of Samantha Stephens trying to hide stuff from Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched and the scene where Cameron decides that Gary needs a makeover just screamed Cher and Dionne making over Tye in Clueless. There's also a disco fantasy sequence with Gary and Cameron that came off like a bad drag show that just seemed to pad running time.

Zachary Quinto is just way too an intelligent a screen presence for the role of Gary, but I guess this was his way of coming out, career wise, which wasn't really necessary, but he certainly could have found a better vehicle than this one. it's no surprise that Gage was a perfect fit for a role he wrote for himself and Simon Rex, who was so good last year in Red Rocket, works hard as the corpse lover, but this movie is such a mess nobody really comes off that great and the last ten minutes are beyond ridiculous.

Victim
A blistering adult tale of blackmail, tolerance, and mob sensibility,1961's Victim is a literate and engrossing story that was way ahead of its time and maybe that's why it packs such an emotional wallop now.

The film stars Dirk Bogarde as Melville Farr, an English barrister who been living as a closet homosexual for many years, despite the fact that he is married. When a former lover of his is blackmailed and, upon arrest, hangs himself in a jail cell, Farr decides to risk his comfy existence being exposed as a scam by going after the blackmailer himself, who is going to be coming after him next.

The richly complex screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick manages to cover a lot of ground very effectively for subject matter that was pretty much forbidden in, though released the same year as The Children's Hour, which was pretty tame compared to what we get here. First of all, this was another film that addressed the idea of a man being married having nothing to do with his sexual orientation. Also impressive was the reveal that Farr's wife knew who her husband was and thought she was the woman who could change him. The idea of a group of thieves photographing gay men and then extorting them for money and most horrifying of all, that in 1961 London, homosexuality was illegal.

My favorite scene in the movie was when Farr's wife, Laura (Sylvia Syms) finds out about this young man. This scene is so beautifully directed and acted because it is through the performances of Bogarde and Syms and not necessarily the dialogue, we learn that this is not only not the first man Farr has been with, but that Laura knows all about Farr's history and has accepted to a point, thinking if she loves him enough, it will change who he is. Syms is especially brilliant in this scene, you can just see her putting the pieces together of what is happening in her mind, while Bogarde is simultaneously trying to present as a minor dalliance that has nothing to with his past. Bogarde, Syms, and director Basil Deardon really knock it out of the park.

The gorgeous black and white cinematography only enhances the darkness of the piece and Phillip Green's music also sets an appropriate mood. Both Bogarde and Syms are superb and I also loved Peter McEnery as Bogarde's tragic paramour, Norman Bird as Harold, and Charles Lloyd Pack as Henry. A shattering motion picture experience that will haunt as the credits roll.

Old Dads
Bill Burr does some solid work as the screenwriter, director, and star of a 2023 comedy-drama called Old Dads, a tale of friendship and ageism that hits some solid bullseye in terms of issues that aren't necessarily considered politically correct.

The Netflix feature is about Jack, Connor, and Mike, BFFS and business partners who all became parents late in life and recently lost their business to a snotty kid young enough to be their son. Jack loves being a dad but messed up big when he called the principal of his son's school a really nasty name. Connor is terrified of aging and of his emasculating wife, who is spoiling his son rotten by refusing to discipline him. Mike doesn't want to have anymore kids and is not happy when his live in girlfriend gets pregnant anyway.

Burr's screenplay starts off rather brilliantly as the film, starts off as an examination of new millenium sensibilities and how these three guys have completely lost track of the world we live in, being completely ignorant of anything that happened since 1985. The first half the film is very funny as we watch these three guys attempt to scratch and claw their way into 2023, but have a really difficult time of it. Unfortunately the beginning of the second half takes a dumb detour when the three guys think their lives are over and pile into a car, driving to Las Vegas and wasting thousand of dollars on lap dances.

The opening scenes of Jack being chastised by the principal for being late for pickup and then being forced into a public apology in front of all the kids and their parents are on the money. A sort of reverse look at the theme where the guys hit the road with one of their new employees and goad him into using the "N" word also generated a lot of laughs. The whole first half of the film was a dead on examination of three guys being clueless about living in 2023 and if the entire film had stayed on this trajectory, this would have been something pretty spectacular, but as the film winds down, we learn that guys haven't really learned anything, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Burr's gutsy performance as Jack fascinates, though I thought Bokeem Woodbine's Mike was the film's most interesting character. The usually solid Bobby Cannavale kind of grated on the nerves here, but I loved Rachael Harris as the principal, Katie Aselton as Jack's wife, and Miles Robbins as the guy who bought the guys' business from them. There are also a pair of terrific cameos from the long absent from the screen C Thomas Howell as the business' new spokesperson and two time Oscar nominee Bruce Dern as an Uber driver. It's not a home run, there is definite entertainment value here.

The River (1984)
Melodramatic direction and an overstuffed screenplay prevent a beautifully photographed epic from 1984 called The River from being everything it should have been.

The Garveys a hard working farm family who live on a Tennessee river that is virtually being destroyed flooding rains, which have, of course, affected crop sales and have the family in such financial straits that patriarch Tom Garvey is forced to accept another job away from the farm and leaving matriarch Mae to keep the farm going.

This was one of three "Save the Farm" movies that were released in 1984. The other two were Places in the Heart which won Sally Field her second Oscar and Country, which starred Jessica Lange. This is the weakest of three films because the screenplay meanders from the family at the center of the story and gets a little too involved with these people at Tom's second job, which reveals that Tom is actually a scab at a warehouse where the employees are on strike. Now this could have made an interesting movie all by itself, but inserted into the middle of the story that had already been established, it felt like second movie had been edited into the first one. There are also scenes here that are slightly disguised scenes from A Place in the Heart and Country.

The direction by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) is slightly overheated and unfocused. There's a completely unnecessary scene revolved around a community softball game where Rydell's camera spends an inordinate amount of time exploring Mel Gibson's physique. There's also a scene at the warehouse where a deer wonders in that not only stops all the workers but brings the film to a dead halt. One heart-stopping scene where Rydell does score a bullseye is a scene where Sissy Spacek's Mae gets her arm stuck in a piece of equipment on a tractor and has to goad a bull into helping her get out of it.

The film actually received four Oscar nominations, including a lead actress nomination for Spacek, Vilmos Zsigmond's breathtaking cinematography and John Williams' lush music. There's a lot to recommend here, but the movie never quite gels as a complete cinematic experience.

Fair Play (2023)
The 2023 Netflix production Fair Play is an overlong and unimaginative soap opera that manages to hold viewer attention through some stylish directorial flourishes and some palatable chemistry between the stars.

Emily and Luke are a recently engaged couple who work at the same hedge fund and have somehow managed to keep their relationship a secret from their co-workers. Their relationship begins to methodically unravel when Emily receives a promotion at work that they thought Luke was going to get.

Director and screenwriter Chloe Domont, whose primary experience is in television as a writer and director for shows like Ballers, Shooter, and Billions, has provided us with a story that is nothing special, resembling a feature length episode of The Young and the Restless, that initially titillates, but becomes more and more predictable as the film progresses.

Domont's directorial style does make the film appear a little more special than it really is. The opening scene where they have sex in a bathroom is a real eye-opener and we think what happens during this scene is going to work into the plot later, but it really doesn't. I like the way their desk were on opposites sides of a cubicle when the film begins, but after Emily gets promoted, her office is still across from Luke's, just from a different angle. Domont allows the camera to tell a lot of the story from Luke's desk and Emily's office, without dialogue and it's much more effective. I just wish the story offered more surprises than it does.

Emily Blunt-look-a-like Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich (Hail Ceasar, Cocaine Bear) generate some serious chemistry as Emily and Luke, respectively, but because the story tears them apart it's hard to notice. Rich Sommer, Sebastian DeSouza, and Eddie Marsan make the most of thankless supporting roles, but this is watchable, but nothing special.

Matinee
Pretty much ignored at its time of release but now considered a cut classic, 1993's Matinee is a lavishly produced, sweetly nostalgic valentine to sci-fi horror that features deft scripting and imaginative direction from the director of Gremlins.

It's the Florida Keys during the recently announced Cuban Missile Crisis that has the town in a panic but young Gene, his mom, and little brother are trying to keep their chins up since Gene's dad is in the navy and stationed right at the center of the conflict. A schlock movie producer named Lawrence Woolsey has decided that this is the perfect time and place to introduce his latest movie about a man turned ant called "Mant", along with some of his personal technology to get audiences more involved with what's going on up on the screen.

Charles A Hasse (Gremlins 2: The New Batch) and Jerico Stone (My Stepmother is an Alien) have crafted a near brilliant homage to 1950's science fiction that not only brilliantly recrates the 1950's for the story, but manages to incorporate real life figures and events from the period into the fictional story, something I usually find dangerous in screenwriting, but it totally works here.

Lawrence Woolsey, though not a real life character, seems to be based on producer Roger Corman. It's so much fun the way this character looks past just the making of the film to produce box office receipts. Loved his idea of placing electrical devices in the seats to shock the audience the first time Mant attacks someone in the movie. He also has his star and girlfriend dress as a nurse in front of theater and make ticket buyers sign a disclaimer relieving the filmmakers of liability if they get scared to death. Also loved that the school bully was Harvey Stockweather, half of the real life crime duo Starkweather and Fugate, who were the inspiration of the 1973 film Badlands. And the movie within a movie "Mant", is hysterical.

Director Joe Dante put a lot of care into the execution of this story, particularly in some spectacular visual effects and a pretty much unknown cast of young actors in the principal roles. It was so refreshing to see teenage character in a movie actually played by teenage actors. Simon Fenton was charming as young Gene as was Kellie Martin as the bubbly Sherry. John Goodman was perfection in his first and only real leading role as Woolsey and was well-paired with Cathy Moriarty as his actress/girlfriend. Gene's little brother, Dennis, was played Jesse Soffer, who two years later would play Bobby in The Brady Bunch Movie and this film also featured cameos by William Schallert and, in the final feature length film appearance of his career, Hollywood legend Jesse White. A joy from start to finiash.

Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star
Four time Oscar nominee and Hollywood icon Tom Cruise is the subject of a pretentious and pandering unauthorized documentary called Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star, which works very hard at making Cruise look like a God of the movie industry, but offers little if no insight into Tom Cruise the person.

The movie begins with the gushing of several movie critics and entertainment writers about the phenomenal success of Top Gun: Maverick and how it not only revived Cruise's career but got the entire motion picture industry off life support. Then the film hints at the meltdown of his career during the middle of the first decade of 2000, leading us all the way back to the beginning of his remarkable career.

The gushing surprisingly stops when the film moves back to the beginning of his career, with brief glimpses of his work in Taps and The Outsiders, but quickly glosses over in an all too economic films like Risky Business, All the Right Moves, The Color of Money, Rain Man, barely mentioning films like The Firm and A Few Good Men, but this isn't what my problem with this film. My problem is precious little is offered regarding what went behind the scenes with these films. We are offered no interviews with actors or directors who worked with Cruise and, of course, it goes without saying that there are no interviews with the man himself. There's nothing in this film that couldn't be found on a google search.

The gushing also stops when the commentary switches to circa 2005-2006 when Cruise went public about his scientology beliefs and when he was having heated arguments with Brooke Shields, Matt Lauer, and jumping on Oprah's couch. Unfortunately, the commentary for this part of the actor's history are glossed over as quickly as possible to go back to interminable praise about Cruise's stunt work on his movies.

Commentary is provided by film critic Richard Roeper, co-screenwriter AA Dowd, director Thomas Arnold, and Dan Jolin. This might be interesting to people who know absolutely nothing about the star, but hardcore cinephiles looking for some real insight into the star will be severely disappointed.

James Dean (2001)
Some flashy directorial touches and a solid performance from James Franco in the title role help make a 2001 TV movie entitled James Dean worth a look.

This is a relatively detailed look at the life and career of the original Hollywood rebel whose starring filmography consisted of three films, two of which would earn him Oscar nominations before his tragic death in a car accident on November 30, 1955.

The screenplay by Israel Horvitz (Author! Author!) is oddly constructed. The film begins on the set of East of Eden where Dean is driving his co-star Raymond Massey (the late Edward Herrmann) nuts with his method acting techniques, ignorantly unaware that director Elia Kazan was pushing Den with his techniques behind Massey's back, then the film flashes back to Dean's troubled childhood with his mentally ill mother and his distant father (Michael Moriarty, who won an Emmy for this performance).

The story doesn't provide a lot in terms of shocking reveal of the man behind the movie star. Dean is portrayed here as a spoiled child who wanted movie stardom on his own terms and only wanted to do things his way and the way he wanted. In addition to his troubles with Raymond Massey, we observe him telling directors and co-stars how he was going to play scenes whether they liked it or not. There was one totally unbelievable scene where Broadway showman Billy Rose (John Pleshette) actually comes out of his own pocket with $10.00 so that Jimmy can have his glasses fixed, but he spends it on food instead, tells Rose what he did with money and is instantly forgiven because Rose wants him in his play so badly.

I don't believe for a minute that a Broadway director was so hypnotized by the guy that he gave him money, or that he kept leading lady Geraldine Page waiting on an opening night or that he made Eliza Kazan drive him to his father's house, but the closing credits begin with a disclaimer stating that most of what we saw here was based on fact and the rest was speculation. I was impressed that this is the first look at Dean's life that even mentioned his bisexuality, though it is glossed over. On the other hand, it was refreshing to see that Jack Warner didn't put up with a lot of Dean's prima donna crap. Warner is played by the film's director, Mark Rydell (The Rose, On Golden Pond). There was also something kid of disturbing about the mounting of the car accident that killed the star that was kind of disturbing.

The physical resemblance between him and the star notwithstanding, James Franco really sinks his teeth into the title role and delivers a performance that did earn him a Golden Globe. Enrico Colantoni and Barry Primus were also solid as Elia Kazan and Nicholas Ray, respectively. It's no classic and I don't buy everything here as truth nor do they claim it to be, but the work of Franco and Rydell make it worth a look.

The Miracle Club
Gorgeous scenery, compelling direction, and three superb performances lead performances do make the 2023 melodrama The Miracle Club worth a look.

The setting is a small community right outside of Dublin called Ballygar in the year 1967. The death of a woman named Maureen has brought together her childhood friends Lily and Eileen and their friend Dolly, who have just won tickets to a trip to Lourdes where the three women are seeking their own personal medical miracles: Lily hopes to have her injured leg repaired; Eileen is looking for a cure for her breast cancer, and Dolly is hoping that the journey will provide speech for her mute son. Also journeying to Lourdes is Maureen's daughter, Chrissie, who returns to Ireland for the first time in 40 years and is motivated to make the trip in order to reconcile with Lily and Eileen.

The screenplay for what initially seems to be a pretty simple story turns out to have layers that we don't see coming at all. Though we're not really sure why, neither Lily nor Eileen's families want them making this pilgrimage to Lourdes and have threatened not to be there when they return. More importantly, once the ladies arrive in Lourdes, backstory explaining Chrissie's 40 year absence from Ballygar comes to light, a story with enough pain and angst to fill a Eugene O'Neill play and the completely different ways that Lily and Eileen view what happened. We're intrigued as it seems that Lily wants to let bygones by bygones but Eileen cannot let go what happened 40 years ago.

The real joy here is watching the remarkable work director Thaddeus O'Sullivan does in establishing this extremely appealing canvas. Of course, Ireland is always a welcome location for film, automatically establishing an enchanting canvas on which the story can unfold that becomes even more lavish as the story moves to Lourdes. Every shot of the film establishing a location looks like a postcard.

And the performances he gets from three of the best actresses in the business will distract from the occasional slow spot. Laura Linney is crisp and vulnerable as Chrissie, who initially seems to be the villain of the piece but the character's thaw is believable. Kathy Bates lights up the screen as the explosive Eileen, a rich performance that even allows Bates to sing for the first time since Annie back in 1999. As expected, the divine Maggie Smith steals the show as the sad and sweet Lily, allowing us to see all the wisdom and grace in every wrinkle on her face and making us want anything Lily wants. It's not for all tastes, but the three actresses did make it worth my time.

Single White Female
Despite a predictable screenplay and overheated direction, the 1992 psychological thriller Single White Female is worth watching because of an extraordinary performance by the queen of "hot mess" movie characters, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Bridget Fonda plays Allie, a fashion designer who lives with her boyfriend, Sam (Steven Weber) until she discovers that he has cheated on her. She impulsively throws him out and decides to advertise for a roommate, ultimately deciding on a woman named Hedy (Leigh), who initially seems a little needy until Allie reconciles with Sam, causing something to snap inside Hedy, eliminating anything in her mission to have Allie to herself.

The screenplay by John Lutz and Don Roos is an uncomfortable combination of confusion and predictability, starting from the opening scene, which is a clearly a flashback but we really don't know who these girls are in the flashback. Once Hedy move in with Ally things begin to come into focus to an extent. The story attempts to confuse by having Hedy appear jealous every time she catches Allie and Sam in a romantic situation, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that Hedy's priorities are with Allie, not Sam as she begins to eliminate people who are getting between her and Allie, the same way Michael Beihn started eliminating everyone between him and Lauren Bacall in The Fan.

The film features stylish direction from Barbet Schroeder, who had just received an Oscar nomination for directing Reversal of Fortune. His camerawork lets us inside the heads of these characters as much as he wants us to. He takes a little more care in revealing exactly who Hedy is. We are waffling on what's going on with Hedy until that scene in the beauty parlor where she coyly slithers down those stairs with her hair the same cut and color as Allie. When Allie finally figures out exactly what's going, which takes way too long, the story gets harder to swallow, especially when Allie and her gay BFF (Peter Friedman) are unable to overpower Hedy together.

But no matter how silly the story gets, it never becomes unwatchable thanks to the magic of Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose beyond creepy Hedy leaps off the screen. Fonda, Weber, and Friedman make the most of their roles, but this is Leigh's show and she delivers what is required of her here.

A Million Miles Away
Despite a solid, Oscar-worthy performance by Michael Pena in the starring role, 2023's A million Miles Away is an overlong and emotionally manipulative biopic about the first Mexican astronaut to go into space that's pretension in telling this story does not justify this film feeling five hours long.

This is the story of Juan Hernandez, the son of a California migrant worker who picked grapes for a living, who worked alongside his father picking grapes when he wasn't in school, but did have bigger dreams which led him to engineering school and his long term goal of becoming an astronaut.

Director and screenwriter Alejandra Márquez Abella displays a great deal of affection and respect for the story and its subject, but it's a little overly detailed and moves at a snail's pace. The beginning of the film spends too much time on Hernandez as a kid trying to connect with his teacher and gain his father's respect and his romance with devoted wife, Adela,is glossed over and after a discussion of their dreams, where she confesses to wanting to own her own restaurant, she spends the majority of the film barefoot and pregnant. She does get her own restaurant before the film is out and they attempt to justify it by showing Hernandez waiting tables and washing dishes before he begins preparations for being part of the Discovery Space Shuttle crew.

Abella borrows story elements from The Right Stuff, Top Gun, Hidden Figures,First Man, and I Dream of Jeannie, but doesn't do an efficient job of disguising them. There are so many corny and predictable scenes here. The scene where Hernandez hand delivers his 12th application for the space program is almost laughable as is the scene where Hernandez helps a fellow astronaut escape a water test. The IMDB also reveals a major historical faux pas in the story. Hernandez is revealed to already be training when the Columbia space shuttle explodes. That tragedy occurred in 2003 and Hernandez did not begin his space training until 2004, sucking all the credibility out of the scene where Hernandez witnesses the tragedy.

Despite all of the problems with this movie, a lot of it can be forgiven thanks to the charismatic performance by Michael Pena as Hernandez. The little moments are the best. I love an early scene where he confesses to Adela his dream of being an astronaut and his reaction when she laughs at him or when he asks Adela if he can take her wedding ring with him on the Discovery. There are the moments that make Pena's performance so special and want to invest in for the entire running time. Rosa Salazar and Bobby Soto are also solid as Adela and Jose's BFF Beto, respectively. A really eclectic classic song score also helps keep this film watchable during the slow spots.

Road House (1989)
After becoming an official movie star with his performance in Dirty Dancing, the late Patrick Swayze took on a much different role with 1989's Road House, a testosterone-charged action comedy that devoted fans of the FOX sitcom Family Guy will tell you, is Peter Griffin's movie.

Swayze plays Dalton (we're never told if this is his first name or last), a martial arts expert who works as a bouncer and has just been hired to clean up a seedy bar in Missouri called the Double Deuce. Dalton's does begin to clean the place up but it also gets the attention of Brad Wesley (the late Ben Gazzara), the local wiseguy who runs the town and is not happy with Dalton's interference.

There's nothing here in terms of a compelling story or characters that we care about, so if you're looking for that sort of thing, you've definitely come to the wrong movie. However, if you are a fan of the late Mr. Swayze, who enjoyed watching him flex his muscles in Dirty Dancing in various states of undress, you get much of the same here, except without the music. This is the first movie hero who I've seen who is able to do his own stitches when he gets hurt and just like Mel Gibson in The River, this film spends more than an inordinate time with the camera focused on Swayze's upper torso.

The story does attempt a romance for the hero with a pretty doctor, played by Kelly Lynch, but the romance falls flat because Swayze has absolutely no chemistry with Lynch, though I have an idea how she may have gotten the part. I couldn't help but notice a more than passing resemblance between Lynch and Swayze's wife, Lisa Reimi and I have to wonder if that had anything to do with Lynch's casting. Unfortunately, whenever Swayze isn't beating up on someone, the film screeches to a dead halt.

Director Rowdy Herrington, who directed the underground classic Repo Man, shows an energetic cinematic eye and a real talent for staging onscreen fight scenes, but like I said, whenever the fighting stopped, so did the film's appeal. Gazzara's flashy performance as Wesley and a charismatic turn from Sam Elliott as another famous bouncer and friend of Dalton's command attention, but not enough to make this film a solid film experience. Swayze made up for this small misstep with his next film, a little something called Ghost.

Quiz Lady
Hulu and Will Ferrell Ferrell's production company struck gold when they cast two actresses opposite each other who should have made a film together long before this, not to mention the fact that both actresses are cast against type. The result is a goofy 2023 comedy called Quiz Lady that not only provides laugh out loud comedy but unexpected doses of warmth.

Awkwefina stars as Anne Yum, a 28-year old, socially awkward office worker who lives with her dog, Mr. Linguini and is obsessed with a game show called "Can't Stop that Quiz" that she has been watching since she was 4 years old. She even has a bobble head doll of the show's host, Terry McTeer (Will Ferrell) on her book shelf. Anne is reunited with her self-absorbed, unemployed sister, Jenny (Sandra Oh) when they learn that their nursing home housed mother has an $80,000 gambling debt. Guess how Anne and Jenny decide to earn the money to clear their mother's debt?

What can I say, I LOVED this movie. Awkwefina and Oh turn out to be a distaff reincarnation of Martin and Lewis, anchoring a comedy premise that shouldn't have been nearly as funny as it was. The characters in this movie are all classic comic archetypes, nothing we haven't seen before but Awkwefina and Oh manage to breath new life into these archetypes that keep them fresh and funny throughout. Screenwriter Jen D'Angelo, whose writing credits include television shows like Cougar Town and the recent sequel Hocus Pocus Two, also scores by making Awkwefina the brainy introverted sister and Oh the flighty and ditzy sister, which I didn't see coming at all.

Remember in White Men Can't Jump when we learn that Rosa Perez' character's dream is to go on Jeopardy? Well, that premise is tweaked here as we watch Anne enjoying her show and getting every question correct. Once we see this, the only thing this movie becomes about is seeing Anne get to be on her favorite show and the fact that she might be able to help her mother on the way would be nice, but it's not a gamebreaker for us. There are some realistic roadblocks provided for Anne, even though her drug-induced hallucinations at the show audition might have been a little over the top, we just know the story wouldn't bring us this far and not let Anne get on that show.

Director Jessica Lu keeps thing breezy for the most part, especially her clear control over the two leads who work so well together. Ferrell is fun as the game show host as is Holland Taylor as Anne's nasty Debbie Downer neighbor and Jason Schwartzman as the game show's obnoxious returning champion. The film also features the final feature film appearance of the late Paul Reubens in a cute cameo near the end. I liked this movie so much and I hope it's not ruined with a sequel. You know those epilogues they have at the end of movie comedies where they explain what happens to each of the characters? This one had the best epilogue I've ever seen.

Crimes of the Heart
Despite the presence of three Oscar winning actresses in the starring roles, the 1986 film version of Crimes of the Heart is a slow and unimaginative movie that keeps pretending to lead to something and never gets there.

This is the story of three eccentric sisters who are reunited in the small southern town where they grew up when their mother commits suicide and one of the sisters gets arrested for shooting her husband. As two sisters try to get to the bottom of what the third did, they find themselves once again at the center of town gossip, thanks primarily to their snarky and prudish cousin, who has been the bane of their existence forever.

Lenny (Diane Keaton) is a lonely woman whose birthday is being quietly celebrated by herself. Meg (Jessica Lange) was the town tramp when she was younger but left town to try to become an actress, a dream that never really panned out. Babe (Sissy Spacek) is the baby sister married to a wealthy but tyrannical lawyer who she shoots after seeing his wife spending innocent time with a hunky young black man.

The film is based on a play by Beth Henley that opened in November of 1981 and ran a little over a year. Henley was allowed to adapt her own play into a screenplay, which is always a risk that, in this case, didn't really pay off. The screenplay is very talky, rich with long rambling Tennessee Williams-type monologues that seem to offer insight into who these sisters are, but it never really does.

Director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) provides some directorial flourishes that do offer something the screenplay doesn't. I don't know if it was in the play, but I loved the attention Beresford put into the attention of the early scene of Lenny attempting to put a birthday candle on a cookie speaks volumes because we assume she has the only one who has remembered it is either Meg or Babe's birthday, but we're a little startled when Meg reveals that it's Lenny's birthday. Also loved a tiny throwaway moment of Meg on the bus home and notices a location memorable to her, that causes just the tiniest smile to appear.

A serious shot of star power helps. Keaton and Lange are solid, as always, and Sissy Spacek's Babe earned her a fourth Best Actress nomination. Tess Harper's bitchy Cousin Chick earned her a Supporting Actress nomination as well. Like all of Beresford's work, the film is beautifully photographed, but considering all the talent involved, should have been a lot more interesting than it was.