Gideon58's Reviews

The Glass Castle
2017's The Glass Castle is a moody biographical drama that is a bit self-indulgent but worth watching due to a powerhouse performance from one of the industry's most likable actors playing an absolutely detestable character.

This film is based on a book by a writer named Jeannette Walls who we meet at the beginning of the movie going home in a cab and almost running over a homeless couple rummaging through a dumpster. Moments later we are shocked to learn that this couple are Jeannette's parents. The film than flashes back to Jeanette's extremely dysfunctional childhood with her two sisters, one brother, her mother Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) and her father, Rex (Woody Harrelson).

Rex and Rose Mary have raised their children living on the street and in abandoned buildings. We see the family move through several different homes in the course of the story and I don't think any of them had lights or electricity. Rose Mary is an impractical dreamer and aspiring artist who knows in her heart the way she's raising her children is wrong but is really afraid of Rex, an abusive, lazy, alcoholic gambler who will always make sure there's a bottle of whiskey in the house and the fact that his kids haven't eaten in three days is a non-issue.

The story eventually whittles down to the love/hate/love relationship between Rex and Jeanette which changes from scene to scene and completely defies logic because for the majority of the running time, Jeannette manages to see some good in her father that no one else does. Rex's conception of being a parent is often hard to swallow even though you can see some of the twisted logic behind it. There's a scene where Rex is trying to teach Jeannette how to swim and all he does is terrify the child. It was also disheartening watching the way Rex seemed to virtually ignore the other three children...until they try to get away from him.

Writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton's screenplay is a little long-winded and delivers Rex's dysfunction with a sledgehammer effect to the point where it is hard to understand why anyone likes this guy. Cretton's direction is dark and gloomy...the film is often poorly lit to the point where sometimes it's hard to tell what's happening, though I have to admit, that there are times we don't want to know.

The performances are the real glue that keep this depressing docudrama crackling, especially a savage and often venomous performance by Woody Harrelson as Rex, a performance that gets under the skin and scratches at the nerve. Oscar winner Brie Larson is beautifully controlled as the physically and emotionally scarred Jeannette. Naomi Watts made the most the thankless role of Rose Mary, as she always does and have to give a shout out to Max Greenfield as Jeannette's tightly wound fiancee. Despite some really unpleasant subject matter, the performances make this quite riveting, aided by the fact that it is allegedly a true story. Fans of The Prince of Tides will have a head start here.

Talk Radio
Oliver Stone and Eric Bogosian triumphed with a claustrophobic and intense drama from 1988 called Talk Radio that is one of the most underrated and nearly forgotten cinematic treasures from the 1980's.

The film version of Bogosian's play, based on the book "The Murder of Alan Berg", seems to have just gotten more timely as the years pass, kind of like Network. This is an intimate look at a facet of what many consider the armpit of show business...late night talk radio. Bogosian plays Barry Champlain, the host of a talk radio show in Dallas called "Night Talk" where he angrily berates listeners on a nightly basis, hangs up on many of them, and gets at least a couple of death threats during every show.

As the film opens, we learn that Barry's show is about to be picked up by a national sponsor which produces mixed emotions for Barry...as much as he'd like the national platform and the additional money, he doesn't want to water down his show and be something he isn't to satisfy his potential new bosses who might not be able to take Barry completely without filter the way they do in Dallas. Barry is so nervous and confused about what is going to happen that he asks the only person he really trusts, his ex-wife, to fly in and watch what is supposed to be his first national broadcast.

This was my sixth viewing of this film but the first in about 15 years and this film hasn't lost a bit of its power and intensity. Bogosian and director Oliver Stone's screenplay spares no one and drives home the fact that the majority of people who listen to late night talk radio are insane. Fans of people like Rush Limbaugh were probably not happy with what is presented here. The story allows us to view this insanity from two different viewpoints...not only do we see Barry belittling his listeners over the radio waves, but we also get to see personal encounters with fans outside of the radio station. There's a great scene where Barry is asked to speak at the opening of a sporting event and is barraged with such heavy booing that he doesn't even speak. I also loved his encounter with a drunken female fan who goes on about how much she hates him but the half smile never leaves her face. This story also makes a strong point for the fact that these people really think they KNOW Barry, which in this story, is more than a little unsettling.

Stone's direction is intense and imaginative...he manages to create the claustrophobic atmosphere that a radio station booth should have but keeps the action opened up as we watch the other people in Barry's orbit react to him and sometimes we're not sure what they're feeling either. Bogosian does an Oscar-worthy turn in the starring role and gets solid support from Alec Baldwin as his boss and Ellen Greene as his ex-wife. Stone's set direction and sound editing crews deserve a shout out as well. Not for all tastes, but a uniquely squirm worthy movie experience if you're up for it.

The Long Long Trailer
A year before the premiere of their classic sitcom, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz introduced their very special chemistry to movie audiences in a 1950 comedy called The Long Long Trailer which proved the success of I Love Lucy was no accident.

Directed by Vincente Minnelli, this is the story of Tacy and Nicky, a young California couple about to be married but are worried about Nicky's new job which is going to involve a lot of traveling with an initial destination of Colorado. Tacy gets the inspired idea to buy a trailer so that they can take their home wherever they have to go. Despite Nicky's limited budget, Tacy talks him into purchasing a huge 40-foot travel trailer as their new home.

The episodic comedy follows the adventures as they discover the expense of this purchase, which includes the purchase of a new car that is capable of pulling the 40 foot beast, the joys of trailer park living, and the perils of maneuvering the beast on crowded highways and narrow mountain roads.

Albert Hackett's screenplay, based on a novel by Clinton Twiss, has been effectively adapted to fit Mr. and Mrs. Arnaz and provides plenty of opportunity for the kind of crazy slapstick comedy which would become a staple of Lucy's long and distinguished future career in television. Standout scenes include Nicky getting instructions on how to drive the trailer, Tacy trying to cook dinner in a moving trailer, and Nicky's battle with a shower head with a mind of its own. Also loved the climactic climb up a very steep Colorado mountain road that perfectly combined suspense and laughs as the couple try to make small talk to cover their terror about the situation.

Minnelli's well-documented eye for color is also evident here with some absolutely gorgeous location photography as our happy couple hit the road. Robert Surtees' cinematography is first rate and Helen Rose provides some lovely fashions for Lucy. Speaking of which, I also have to say that Lucille Ball has never looked more beautiful onscreen. There are also a couple of fun cameos by Marjorie Main as a trailer park resident and Keenan Wynn as a traffic cop. If you loved I love Lucy, you'll love this too.

LBJ
Rob Reiner's direction and a charismatic performance by Woody Harrelson in the starring role make the 2016 biopic LBJ worth a look.

This ambitious film covers quite a bit of territory, from Johnson's reluctance to oppose JFK for the democratic presidential nomination in 1960, not to mention his reluctance to becoming his running mate, and his struggle to make the Civil Rights Bill a reality, despite its original intention by Kennedy to be "busy work" authorized by Kennedy to keep the Vice President out of his hair. All of this is framed by a very authentic reincarnation of that fateful day in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963 that changed America and LBJ forever.

As always, when viewing biopics, it is often difficult to decipher fact from fact that has been altered for the sake of heightened entertainment, but Joey Hartstone's economic screenplay does contain a couple of effective through lines based on reality. I was a child when all of this was happening and have vague memories of a lot of what happens here, but a couple of things I do remember that get driven home here are the coma that this country went into after the assassination and how no one thought LBJ was up to the job of being President.

What was news to me after viewing this film were a couple of very personal feuds that Johnson had with men who should have been in his corner. This movie makes no bones about a strong animosity between Johnson and Robert Kennedy. This is the first piece of entertainment I've seen based on this historical period where Robert Kennedy is painted as a stone cold villain, but he is here. There is also the battle of wills between Johnson and Senator Richard Russell which was almost the death of the Civil Rights Bill.

Reiner does a fine job of respecting the history of what is being presented here while providing entertainment, Reiner's skill as a director also shines in Johnson's big speech at the climax as it is made clear that just as many members of Congress were wary of Johnson as members who supported the new President. Also loved the moment that Johnson is addressed as "Mr. President" for the first time,

As I watched Harrelson's interpretation of Lyndon Johnson, I couldn't help but think that Harrelson's Johnson was a lot more interesting than the real Johnson and though I don't believe that Johnson used all the salty language that Hartstone's screenplay had Harrelson use, I forgave for entertainment's sake. Reiner's makeup team must also be applauded for transforming Harrelson into an authentic looking Johnson as they also did for Jennifer Jason Leigh's Lady Bird, not the first actress I would have thought of for this role, but Leigh made it work. Richard Jenkins was great as Senator Russell and I loved Jeffrey Donovan as JFK. The movie is economic and might try to cover a bit too much territory but Reiner still knows his way behind a camera and Harrelson again proves to be an actor of substance.

A Quite Place
Last year it was Jordan Peele and Get Out, this year it's John Krasinski and A Quiet Place. I will try to talk about this superior thriller without spoilers.

John Krasinski co-wrote and directed this post-Apocalyptic nail biter that introduces the viewer to a solitary family, all barefoot, rummaging through an abandoned store but for some reason they seem to be communicating with sign language even though they are not mutes. We see a child pull a model airplane off a shelf and one of his parents leap to catch it before it actually hits the floor. Before we realize it, it is revealed that the family is in terrible danger from some seriously dangerous alien creatures who have hyper-sensitive hearing and only appear when they hear noise.

Not a lot of backstory is provided here, but we do get a glance at some old newspapers warning of these creatures and how to protect yourselves from them but no other explanation is supplied as the story plows forward focused on this one family who have somehow managed to live a noiseless existence but we begin to wonder how long this can last when it is revealed that the mother (Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt) is pregnant.

Krasinski and his co-screenwriters Bryan Woods and Scott Beck really score here creating a horror film that not only provides the expected scares, but non-stop nail-biting suspense for its entire running time, I'm talking Hitchcock-calibre suspense that has the viewer alternately squirming, holding its breath, and trying to figure out what's going to happen next and always being wrong. The screenplay also scores in establishing this family unit at the beginning of the story and continually separating them throughout the story. Safety in numbers has always been assumed in horror films but Krasinski throws that rule out the window too...where the horror genre is concerned, nothing is sacred here and nothing feels ripped off from another movie.

This movie had me alternately holding onto something and jumping out of my skin at the same time and this is coming from someone who has never really been into the horror genre so that's saying something. Krasinski and Blunt are a couple whose offscreen chemistry is just as strong onscreen, having us frightened for these people from the opening frames even though we don't really know what's going on yet. Krasinski has employed first rate production values here with special nods to editing and, ironically, the sound and sound editing. This movie had me on the edge of my seat so I can only imagine what people who really like horror movies are going to think.

I'm sold!

The Edge of Seventeen
There are sporadic laughs and some solid performances, but the 2016 coming of age comedy-drama The Edge of Seventeen was hard to like primarily because of a central character who was really hard to like (not to mention other issues).

This film is about the seventeenth year on earth for a sullen teen named Nadine, who thought her life was over when her father passed away five years earlier. Nadine's junior year of high school finds her dealing with the fact that her BFF Krista has started dating her older brother Darian. Nadine is also dealing with her own obsession with a boy named Nick who works at Pet Mart but doesn't know that she's alive while a charming and brilliant film student named Irwin Kim thinks she's the best thing since sliced bread but she doesn't care.

Writer director Kelly Fremon Craig was clearly raised on the teen comedies of the 80's, the influence is everywhere here and she works very hard at coming up with something unique and she succeeds to a point, but her screenplay is just a little too busy and tries to cover way too much territory and because of that, this movie seems to go on forever.

But investing in this film was pretty difficult for me because it was really hard to invest in this really detestable character named Nadine. She is completely self-absorbed and can't sustain any real relationship because she wants everything her way. I understood her dismay regarding her best friend and her older brother, but when she forced Krista to choose between her or her brother, her likability began floating out the cinematic window and it left permanently when she stole her mother's car. And don't even get me started about the way she used and abused poor Irwin Kim. I was also bothered by the fact that Nadine paid very few consequences for her behavior and her transformation during the finale was just a little hard to believe after everything we witnessed prior to said transformation.

Despite everything mentioned, the most interesting relationship Nadine has in the movie is with a charming teacher, played to perfection by Woody Harrelson. I loved this relationship because this teacher saw right through Nadine ignoring her pleas for unwarranted attention but giving her attention when she needed. I also loved the fact that this relationship never crosses that line you expect it to in movies like this. These scenes were easily the most enjoyable part of the movie.

Hailee Stanfield gives a real movie star performance as Nadine but the character is so unlikable that you almost can't tell. Kyra Sedgewick was terrific as Nadine's mother and I absolutely LOVED Hayden Szeto as Irwin Kim. Kelly Fremon Craig works very hard at making something offbeat and special here, but for me, a bit of a let down.

Gremlins
Executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Joe Dante scored with a 1984 sleeper called Gremlins, a meticulously crafted send-up of 1950's science fiction movies that completely defies logic but never fails to provide the laughs that prove that the filmmakers are clearly in on the joke here.

It's Christmas time in the fictional hamlet of Kingston Falls where a third rate inventor named Rand Peltzer presents his son Billy with an exotic pet named Gizmo as a gift. Rand and Billy are both warned there are three things they must never do to Gizmo: They are not to expose him to bright light, they're not to get him wet, and they are not to feed him after midnight. Needless to say, about 35 minutes into the film, Gizmo gets light, water, and fed after midnight which turns Gizmo into a gremlin machine, producing hundreds of deadlier, uglier versions of Gizmo who wreak destruction on the small town.

This film reminds me of another Spielberg production from 1982 called Poltergiest in that Chris Columbus' screenplay was written in a tongue in cheek manner that makes it an affectionate valentine to the genre it's saluting but provides more laughs than genuine scares. The film actually walks the line between valentine and lampoon and does it quite beautifully as the realistic small town atmosphere that is carefully established in the opening frames becomes the blueprint for a story that makes very little sense but we don't really notice.

While most movie monsters attack, they have one focus and do one thing, they want to destroy all earthlings. Though there is destruction here, the actual body count is rather small and we watch the gremlins adapt to human sensibilities a little too quickly. We should be wondering how these gremlins know how to cut telephone lines or how to sing Christmas carols or how to drink and smoke cigarettes or how to kill someone with a chainsaw or a tiny gun, but instead of scratching our heads, we just laugh.

I'll never forget the scene of Billy's mother actually nuking one of the gremlins in a microwave. That's the other thing that tickled me about this movie. In most horror movies, when monsters attack, the people run, but not the Kingston Falls population...these people stand up for their houses, their property, their town, no matter what. I also loved the minor subplot of Rand Peltzer's ridiculous inventions that only work temporarily

The performances serve the story beautifully. Baby-faced Zach Galligan is sincere as Billy and country singer Hoyt Axton is terrific as Rand Peltzer. I also LOVED Polly Holliday as the rich dragon lady who owns half the town, where Holliday perfectly channels Margaret Hamilton's Elvira Gulch in The Wizard of Oz. Dante deserves a bouquet for his overseeing of production values here, which were first rate, but with Spielberg's presence on the set, that shouldn't be a surprise. There are some slightly dated elements, but this one is still a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure Joe Dante cut his movie making teeth with B-king movie producer Roger Corman. In fact I think Dante did Piranha a few years earlier for Corman. I haven't seen Gremlins since it came out at the theater but I remember it as being loads of fun....But what? no mention of the world's cutest human being, Phoebe Cates. (according to David Letterman that is).

BTW was that #1000?

Yes, that was review # 1000.

I think Gremlins is a decently funny movie. But I don't love it. I seem to be the only one.

When I said to someone I prefer Piranha he reacted like I was nuts

A Quiet Place is a contender for favorite movie of the year (so far). I actually loved Edge of Seventeen, I thought it was a superior Coming of Age film, but your criticisms are very easy to see. For me, she was riding that line between melodramatic and unlikable, but she captivated me in the end.

Ada (1961)
Despite a long-winded screenplay and some dated plot elements, the 1961 melodrama Ada is worth a look thanks to a trio of solid lead performances.

Dean Martin plays Bo Gillis, a folksy candidate for governor of Tennessee who prefers playing guitar to making speeches on the campaign trail. One night in the back room of a saloon, Bo meets Ada (Susan Hayward), a smart and savvy prostitute who enchants Bo to the point that he spends three weeks with her and then marries her.

Not long after their marriage, Bo is elected governor but things are not sunshine and roses for Bo and Ada as Bo finds himself nothing but a figure head in the governor's office while the state is actually being run by his sleazy campaign manager Sylvester (Wilfred Hyde White) who is also doing his best to manipulate Ada into the perfect First Lady but her ambitions turn out to stretch beyond First Lady. Not to mention the people from Ada's past who refuse to let her forget it.

Arthur Sheekman and William Driskill's screenplay, based on a novel by Wirt Williams does provide contemporary sensibility in a 60's movie heroine who actually ventures into politics, which in the 60's was strictly male territory, but the whole melodrama of a woman knowing her place and never forgetting where she comes from eventually wears this story down, making the hard to swallow finale on the floor of the Tennessee congress just interminable.

On the plus side, director Daniel Mann does pull strong performances from his cast, especially Hayward, who Mann directed in other films and it's clear he understood her strengths as an actress. Love that scene shortly after they move into the governor's mansion where Ada puts a bunch of snooty society matrons in their place when they start questioning her about her past, though I did find Ada's transformation into this political dynamo a little unbelivable. Dean Martin brought some meat to Bo and Wilfred Hyde White really grows into the villain of the piece here...I love greasy bad guys who do their dirt with a constant smile on their face and that's exactly what Sylvester was. The film has expensive trappings, but the story eventually wears the whole thing down.

Eat Pray Love
Even with Oscar winner Julia Roberts in the starring role, the 2010 character study Eat Pray Love is still pretty rough going, even if it is pretty to look at.

Roberts plays Liz, a writer who has just finished divorcing her husband (Billy Crudup) and leaped into a relationship with another guy (James Franco) and realizes that she needs some "me" time and decides to explore her deeply buried passion for travel and takes a trip to Rome, India, and Bali in order to "find herself."

I was curious about this film because the title has become part of pop culture and has become the new upwardly mobile phrase for going out to find oneself, but the movie just didn't live up to the hype. The screenplay by Ryan Murphy (Feud, The Normal Heart) and Jennifer Salt has humor peppered throughout. The opening scenes of Roberts trying to get a divorce from Crudup are a lot of fun, but the story eventually degenerates into a really attractive picture postcard where the actors are having a lot more fun that the viewer.

Murphy's direction is a little on the unimaginative side, despite some truly breathtaking scenery, but he seems to be a little too dependent on his star's charisma to carry a story that, once it leaves American soil, moves at a snail's pace and makes this central character a little hard to tolerate at times, because about halfway through the film, it feels like this journey to find herself is pointless because there really is nothing to find and there's no way this Liz is ever going to be happy again.

A decade after her Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovich, Roberts proves she still has the chops to carry a film, but the story is really fighting her here. Crudup and Franco make the most of their screentime and there's a terrific supporting performance from the fabulous Richard Jenkins, not to mention a brief but memorable bit from Oscar winner Jarvier Bardem, but for the most part, this film isn't much more than a really pretty travelogue and I wished I had as much fun watching it as Murphy and Roberts seemed to have had making it.

I'm surprised you didn't like Edge of Seventeen more, but then I actually liked Nadine. I do agree with you about Woody Harrelson, and even my wife loved him in it and she usually doesn't like him.

We also watched The Glass Castle around the same time strangely enough, and my wife picked that out. I didn't care for it and thought it was like a made for TV movie.

Talk Radio and Gremlins are old favorites and I'm very much looking forward to A Quiet Place.

ROCKY
Reading my good friend Citizen's review motivated my 6th re-watch of Rocky, the feel good movie of 1976 that struck such an emotional chord with moviegoers, not to mention winning the Oscar for Best Picture of 1976 and making an official movie star out of a struggling actor named Sylvester Stallone.

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 40 years, Stallone wrote the screenplay for this winning Cinderella story playing one Rocky Balboa, a former boxer who lives in Philadelphia and works as a thumb breaker for a local loan shark. He is good at his work even if his heart gets in the way sometimes and he recently lost his locker at the gym where he works. Rocky is suffering from self-pity and even some self-loathing when the opportunity of a lifetime falls in his lap. Heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) offers Rocky a chance to step in the ring with him for the championship when his original opponent falls ill.

Amidst all this, Rocky begins to seriously pursue a relationship with Adrian (Talia Shire) the painfully shy sister of Rocky's buddy Paulie (Burt Young), an abusive alcoholic who works in a butcher shop. Rocky's sensitive approach to getting this girl's attention not only works, but brings the girl out of the shell she's been living in.

Many have speculated on why this movie struck such a chord with movie audiences in 1976, considering the fact that prior to this, Stallone had only done bit parts in seven or eight other films, the only significant role being in The Lords of Flatbush. I think the Cinderella story onscreen paralleled so strong with the one off that an immediate connection was made with people. It didn't hurt that Rocky was also one of the most instantly likable movie characters ever created and Stallone's script and John G. Avildsen's sensitive direction take their time in crafting this likability...i loved watching Rocky trying to teach the young tomboy not to act like a whore or trying to justify not breaking the thumb of a guy who was $70 short on what he owed. I also loved Rocky and Adrian's first date on the ice...with the vocal alarm clock in the background.

I was also impressed by the fact that even though Rocky was not the brightest bulb in the row, he was not a complete moron. I LOVE that scene where Mickey (Burgess Meredith) comes to his apartment trying to climb on the Rocky bandwagon after Rocky has been offered the title shot. He reminds Mickey that he just took Rocky's locker, but his acceptance of Mickey's offer is done out of earshot of the audience...a nice directorial touch from Avildsen.

Avildsen's direction also won him an Oscar as did Richard Halsey and Scott Conrad's film editing. Personally, I think Best Picture and Director should have gone elsewhere, but I definitely understand the wins. Stallone's movie star turn in the title role is an absolute revelation. I think Talia Shire was robbed of the Best Actress Oscar for her Adrian, a character who makes a remarkable and believable transformation from her first scene to her last, Shire is a one woman acting class here and Meredith's supporting actor nomination was richly deserved as well. The climactic fight between Rocky and Creed is effectively choreographed and edited, though I really didn't buy Rocky knocking Creed down so early in the fight, but that's a very small nitpick regarding this instant classic that riveted me to the screen to day the same way it did 42 years ago.

@Gideon58 have you seen and/or are you going to watch the other Rocky sequels?

I haven't done so yet. I guess I didn't catch Rocky fever. But I still might check out Rocky II and Rocky III. I did see the last Rocky film he made and I thought that was pretty darn good.

If you've never seen them, you really should watch II, III, and IV.

What about Rocky V?

Rocky V sucked. So did Rocky Balboa