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Easter Parade, 1948

Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) has just been dumped by his long-time dance partner, Nadine (Ann Miller). Drunkenly swearing that he could be a hit with any female partner, he scouts small-time dancer Hannah Brown (Judy Garland). At first trying to mold her as a replacement for Nadine, he soon realizes he needs to embrace her style of song and dance. This is all complicated by a crush that Don's friend, Johnny (Peter Lawford), has on Nadine.

This film stands in an interesting contrast to For Me and My Gal. For starters, Gene Kelly was originally to play the role of Don Hewes. After an injury, Astaire came in to take over the role. The result is that three of the four leads are all 26 years old, while Astaire is 49 years old. Despite a fair amount of the film relating to Hewes respecting Hannah, the romance aspect doesn't read quite right. This might also be something that bothers me because for a while it seemed as if the romance would be between Johnny and Hannah, and the rest of the film explore the professional relationship between Hannah and Don. Alas, no. And unlike For Me and My Gal, the plot between the song and dance numbers is relatively thin. There just isn't enough background or depth to the characters to make them really interesting, or to explain why Hannah falls for Don.

The musical numbers themselves are pretty charming, especially the "flop" number when Don and Hannah disastrously perform for an audience with Hannah exactly one half step behind on everything. It takes a lot of skill to get something so wrong, so right. And the added touch of Garland's dress shedding feathers left and right is perfect. Despite being the general "villain" of the film, Miller's Nadine gives a very funny performance and some really solid dance numbers of her own.

Again, though, I was just a bit distracted by all the parallels with For Me and My Gal. Seasoned performer scouts Judy Garland character. Conflict around half of a partnership jumping ship for a big opportunity. Heck, even the line "Why didn't you tell me I loved you?" is reused. A seemingly very fitting alternative romantic interest. (I was going to say "both called Johnny", but in the other film his name is Jimmy, LOL). Now, there's nothing wrong with Easter Parade taking a much lighter approach, it's just that it must contend with the echoes of a film I found a lot more compelling.

Solid musical numbers, great lead performances, story a bit thin.




“I was cured, all right!”

Good subject and interviews but sometimes the documentary looks like a YouTube essay - the dramatizations scenes are pretty bad.



Well conducted and organized interviews about the birth of Black Metal (Mayhem, to be more specific) free of western censorship. Necrobutcher looks like a cool dude.





Good movie. I liked it. Both leads are excellent. Did not realize it was Carrie Coon.
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I went and saw Crimes of the Future today. It was weird. I am also weird, so I liked it. I thought the screenplay was smart and well written. Performances were good, especially Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart. I would rank this as David Cronenberg's 8th best film and rate it
. If you are a weirdo who enjoys weird movies (like me), you should check out Crimes of The Future.



Jurassic World: Dominion

This is what you happens when you lose the director of the Orphanage and bring back the director of The Book of Henry.



Jurassic World: Dominion

This is what you happens when you lose the director of the Orphanage and bring back the director of The Book of Henry.
I'll probably give it a watch at some point because I'm a sucker for dino action and the first one is a childhood favourite, but man, I cannot muster any enthusiasm for this.



I'll probably give it a watch at some point because I'm a sucker for dino action and the first one is a childhood favourite, but man, I cannot muster any enthusiasm for this.
While the script is rife with laziness and problems, I've not seen a director suck the life and energy from a film that should so easily direct spectacle.

Trevorrow is to dinosaurs what Rob Marshall is to musicals.



I haven't gotten moist over any of the new crop of JP flicks. A lot of it has to do with Chris Pratt. He's fine when bringing a goofy, comedic sensibility to his leading man roles. But I don't think this type up of proficient, devil may care kind of hero is his forte.



While the script is rife with laziness and problems, I've not seen a director suck the life and energy from a film that should so easily direct spectacle.

Trevorrow is to dinosaurs what Rob Marshall is to musicals.
That was my biggest problem with Jurassic World. Every action scene was directed in the flattest way possible so as not to raise the pulse even slightly. There's no sense of wonder or even fear. I understand that tied into the movie's attempts at satire, but a fun viewing experience it did not make.


Fallen Kingdom is no masterpiece, but it at least understood how to make dinosaurs seem formidable and awe-inspiring.







SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it



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LIKE A ROLLING STONE: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres

I never liked or read critique (unless it's someone like us), but I know this guy is a big fan of The Doors






That was my biggest problem with Jurassic World. Every action scene was directed in the flattest way possible so as not to raise the pulse even slightly. There's no sense of wonder or even fear. I understand that tied into the movie's attempts at satire, but a fun viewing experience it did not make.


Fallen Kingdom is no masterpiece, but it at least understood how to make dinosaurs seem formidable and awe-inspiring.
I fear Treverrow's direction has only become flatter.

Fallen Kingdom is not a masterpiece (Treverrow's script knee caps that) but Bayona's direction is masterful.





The Pirate, 1948

Manuela (Judy Garland) is a young woman living in a Spanish village and dreaming of being carried away by notorious pirate Macoco. Instead, she finds herself engaged to Don Pedro (Walter Slezak), a man with no desire to travel any further than his own front door. When traveling performer Serafin (Gene Kelly) rolls into town and falls for Manuela, he decides to pose as Macoco in order to win her affections, not thinking about the consequences of his deception.

The second Garland/Kelly pairing that I've seen, and this one is a fun little romp, lifted by a strong third act that makes up for some wobbly parts that come before it.

It won't shock anyone to find out that Garland and Kelly absolutely nail their time on screen as Manuela and Serafin. Honestly, the characters are not the best written, but both actors power through just by letting their natural talents shine. Kelly in particular is given several sequences to just strut his stuff, which really makes up for his character being a bit of a goober. Slezak is also good as the arrogant Don Pedro, whose pride becomes the greatest threat to Manuela's happiness.

The plot only really picks up steam in the last act, when Serafin is put on trial as the pirate Macoco and must figure out how to escape an inevitable hanging. There are some good plot turns along the way in the last 30 or so minutes, and it all comes to a very strong conclusion. There's one of those "how long will this go on?!" comedy bits involving Garland throwing various items at Kelly that's a pretty winning piece of slapstick.

Part of the last act is a show-stopping dance number with Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers. I was shocked (though I guess not surprised, sigh) to read that in many Southern states this sequence was simply cut because it featured Kelly dancing with two Black dancers. I mean, joke's on the racists for missing out the best five minutes of the whole movie, but it's still a bizarre thing to think about.

And while it doesn't show on screen, this was apparently a pretty horrible time for Judy Garland, who was frequently ill and suffering effects from the various medications she was on. I haven't written about it in my other reviews of her films, but each one is filled with such heartbreaking trivia about what she went through during her career and how it all just continued to snowball on her.

Overall this was a fun romp with some thin characterization but a satisfying conclusion.




The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1968)


As featured in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... , a product of its time but still a whole lot of fun with all its ridiculousness. Dean Martin is the king of cool and the ladies of the film are wonderful - especially Sharon Tate. Plenty of cheesy lines, action scenes that are so bad you'd have no idea Bruce Lee was involved, catchy music, and a ridiculous plot. Lots of loveable stuff and endearing qualities that are hard to find nowadays. A nice fun watch and I'd watch the others if they were on TV too.
It's a fun movie, played mostly for camp and some laughs. The novel of the same name was written by Donald Hamilton, who wrote 27 Matt Helm mysteries. I think I read every one of them. Great reading if you haven't already sampled his novels. The novels are more serious, but very addicting..



The French Dispatch - (2021)

Wes Anderson appears to be in creativity overload, as evidenced by The French Dispatch which roars along at a frantic pace so fast that I couldn't take all of it in on first viewing - there are a few interesting things going on in each s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ s̶h̶o̶t̶ frame of film, and second of sound. It's not as instantly loveable as The Grand Budapest Hotel, but still a fabulous film which I will no doubt watch many times. Anderson's ensemble is now enormous, and includes Benicio del Toro, Timothée Chalamet, Christoph Waltz and Jeffrey Wright. This is his first anthology film, taking the form of different stories printed in The French Dispatch - a magazine edited by Bill Murray's Arthur Howitzer Jr., who has just passed away. Let me just add that my favourite moment was the introduction of Willem Dafoe, discovered by Jeffrey Wright's character sitting in the "chicken coop" of a French police station wide-eyed and asking if he's about to be done away with.

Liev Schreiber and Timothée Chalamet both appearing brought back bad memories of A Rainy Day in New York, but this film, while intelligent, isn't as pretentious as that disaster. It's a kaleidoscope of amusing characters, wonderful imagination, and visual delight. If you hate Wes Anderson's films, you won't be won over with this one, but as a fan I think this is up there with his best - and my rating will probably go up on future viewings.

8/10
I enjoyed the production, but didn't care for the story. My commentary:


The French Dispatch

Dashiell Hammett once said, “It’s the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.” One hopes that this will not be the case with Wes Anderson. But in his latest film, style over story is definitely on display. And brilliant is the style. Production designer Adam Stockhausen, set decorator Rena DeAngelo, DP Robert Yeoman, and film composer Alexandre Desplat put together a cornucopia of sight and sound that does not let up for its entire 108 minute run time. Its color palette, set framing, and off beat scene and action design fire at the viewer with such unrelenting eye candy as to be overwhelming.

Yet the story told roughly in four parts is incoherent and confusing. Reportedly Anderson was giving a nod to the magazine The New Yorker, but the link is likely recognizable only by those who are intimate with the publication’s history and personalities. And the magazine’s famous cartoons are much more droll and dry than most examples of Anderson’s eccentric wit.

The editor of
The French Dispatch magazine (Bill Murray) drops dead early on, and to fulfill the orders in his will, four stories are included in a final publication. Of the four segments, “The Concrete Masterpiece” is largely the easiest to follow. A crazed artist (Benicio del Toro) who is in prison for murder, paints pictures of his nude model (Lea Seydoux), who is also his jailer. An art dealer and fellow prisoner (Adrien Brody), galvanized by the paintings, secures public presentation of them which brings international fame to the artist. Yet subsequent sales of the artist’s works becomes problematic since they were painted on walls when he was in prison. A solution is found.

The film serves as a send up of the pretentious modern art world, political revolutionaries, and Gallic nature. But the scene changes and zany confrontations come at the viewer so rapidly that one finds oneself desperately searching for some cohesion, for some narrative. In contrast Anderson’s 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel has similar style, wackiness and design, but with a more accessible pacing and a discernible plot.

The picture featured a cast full of Anderson regulars plus a carload of bankable stars. Reportedly his next film expands the cast to a boat load size. Hopefully in that film Anderson will have gotten back on track to give us a fathomable story along with his signature eccentricity.

Doc’s rating: Production - 10/10; Story - 5/10



Camp Hollywood (2004)
Entertaining and endearing cinema verite documentary about Canadian wannabe actors and other people who live at a run down hotel waiting for their next break. Oddly enough the only actor I recognized as a working actor was the beautiful Malin Akerman and she was not interviewed. There was also a drunken singer who was very attractive though why he got a Travis Bickle haircut to woo his ex-girlfriend I will never know. Self sabotage I guess,.Seen on Youtube for free.


I give it 3.5 popcorns out of five.



Minus (Yeah, that's a minus two)

Jurassic World Dominion - OK, so we all know by now that in this parallel universe episode dinosaurs are everywhere, threatening us. The time line seems to be roughly now but so far, no raptors in my neighborhood, so I guess it's an alternate universe. One brief review seemed to sum it up although I wasn’t sure that the author was intending to be witty. He didn’t seem to know what a trilogy is, so he referred to JWD as the 6th installment of a trilogy. That actually seems to be pretty much right on target, intended or not.

The characters and FX are all there, as are lots of roaring, crashing, smashing dinosaurs, not just in the jungle but in other places, even snowy ones. Actors all perform their duties, FX people and animators make green screens come alive, but what none of it has is that Spielberg sense of story telling and wonderment. It’s all lost in nearly three hours of quick cuts, disjointed scripting and a complete lack of anything other than action. I really did not care about any of the characters enough to care whether they got eaten by dinosaurs. Plot wise, you just have to wonder what would be the reason for making even bigger predators, since they are, after all, output of a corporate lab, not spontaneous generation or evolution.

Colin Trevorrow shows up not just as director but also as one of the writers, so this dog lands right on his lap. Even with the cast from the past (Pratt, Howard, Dean, Neill and Goldblum) doing their best, there’s just nothing in this script to work with. Cameos from past dinosaurs didn’t help, nor did making even bigger dinosaurs. There’s even a teen girl character who, in this contorted, fragmented plot, seems to be some sort of genetic project. That plot element made no sense at all, like much of this movie.




I forgot the opening line.

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The Square - (2017)

Art is tricky - I believe in it, but it becomes so easy for certain artists to become so self-important, pretentious, over-lauded and irrelevant that it's a world I wouldn't want to be a part of. The Square is about the curator of an art gallery in Sweden, Christian (Claes Bang), who has to confront his own contradictions and hypocrisy - as do the people around him, all the while living his life and dealing with artists and exhibitions. It has many truly striking scenes, including one near the end where performance art really appears to go too far - the one with Terry Notary (pictured above in the film poster) - those who have seen the film will know which one I mean. Littered throughout are many beggars and humanitarians who go ignored (or are taken advantage of) during times when various characters are espousing 'kindness' and 'solidarity with humanity' - not all of the time, but enough to chart where this community of artists really stand. It all leads up to a marketing campaign for the museum which goes off the rails due to it's tasteless content in a bid to attract attention. Christian is a deeply flawed character who makes many missteps, and is constantly having to face the fact that he's not the person he'd like to be - he's a slave to his selfish urges and thoughtless attitude. It's good enough to sustain our interest for it's 151-minute running time - so I heartily back this Palme d'Or winner.

8/10


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A House on the Bayou - (2021)

*sigh* Okay, lets start with a good point. 25 year-old Jacob Lofland is great in this film - his villain, Isaac, is memorable and it's a crying shame it wasn't in service to a much better film. Lofland has appeared in Mud and a couple of Maze Runner films. He's one to keep an eye on. Unfortunately though, A House on the Bayou founders in a quagmire of very dumb plot twists once it really gets going, sinking the entire film in a ridiculous, badly scripted mess. It feels like the kind of story that was just made up on the go, without any care paid to the plot as a whole - it shifts from paranormal to "tricked you! it's not paranormal" to "tricked you again, it is paranormal" to "we tricked you yet again, it's really not really paranormal" to "oh my goodness, we tricked you yet again, it really is paranormal!" and on and on to the point where the film felt too silly to get invested in, but way too serious to have fun with. It really left a bad taste in my mouth, and it's lucky to get a rating as high as I'm giving it.

4/10
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