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The Sterile Cuckoo (Alan J. Pakula, 1969)
Liza Minnelli got her first Oscar nom for Best Actress in her second film, limning the adorably-insecure Pookie opposite an enormously insecure co-star, making his film debut, Wendell Burton, playing Jerry. Burton, although he never really made it big in movies at all, is a perfect foil to Minnelli's Pookie and grounds the film in recognizable humanity. The film is actually rather simple although that shouldn't mean simplistic. It's a Power Struggle, a Battle of the Sexes, but this time it involves 18-year-olds going off to neighboring colleges, seemingly to not only get away from their parents but to find themselves. Initially, Pookie's erratic behavior seems to put her in charge of the relationship, but eventually Jerry's ability to root himself in reality takes over. It does contain multiple usage of the Sandpipers' smash, "Come Saturday Morning".
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008)
One thing you can say about Judd Apatow produced and directed films is that they always depict men as emotionally unable to compete with women on an even keel. They also tend to be much longer than the average sex/romantic comedy since they seem to range from about 115 minutes to 140 minutes. Woody Allen took a long time to make a film longer than 95 minutes, but he was too naive to try to make big bucks initially. This film contains plenty of big laughs and smaller guffaws, but it mostly does represent a truth between the sexes, and that's why I tend to cut these Apatow comedies more slack than a few do around here. I keep hearing this idiotic mantra, "well, comedy is subjective..."; WTF? You don't think drama, horror, action, fantasy, etc. are subjective? OK, signing off.
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) +
This is just a terrific film, undoubtedly deserving a higher rating, but I still have to stay with my class. It's a terrific black comedy/paranoid thriller/suspense flick. It's crammed with so many dark and twisted things that it's almost unAmerican to accept how perfect the plot is. Remember, this film was released before the first Kennedy assassination. That's one of the main reasons it disappeared for so many years. I'm pretty sure that most people will agree that this film contains the best performances by Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, James Gregory and Angela Lansbury. The twisted dark humor, involving the brainwashing scene, has never been replicated; no, not even in Dr. Strangelove. Yes, this is in my Top 35 films, per my Top 100 List, so it probably needs a higher rating than , But I can be just as stubborn as you can.
Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks, 1960)
My number 2 film of all time. While watching this yesterday, I really had to step back, once again, and decide why I picked Jaws as my number 1 because I had this and "The Fish Movie" tied for first for so long that I never thought I'd have to perform an operation to separate them. Jaws is as close to perfection as a film comes, at least if not compared to this shining star of honest emotion, raucous characterization, contradiction in what's important in daily life, general "love thy neighbor" policy, deeply satirical interpretations of human behavior, and the basic law of "he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone". Elmer Gantry has probably the most amazing script ever written, with a non-stop collection of witty and pungent lines every few seconds. Richard Brooks easily wrote his best script, and performed his best direction, both visually and using his cast, and he deserves special kudos for making Elmer Gantry as relevant today as it it was almost 50 years ago when it came out. If you don't believe me, just check out this year's Presidential campaign.
Liza Minnelli got her first Oscar nom for Best Actress in her second film, limning the adorably-insecure Pookie opposite an enormously insecure co-star, making his film debut, Wendell Burton, playing Jerry. Burton, although he never really made it big in movies at all, is a perfect foil to Minnelli's Pookie and grounds the film in recognizable humanity. The film is actually rather simple although that shouldn't mean simplistic. It's a Power Struggle, a Battle of the Sexes, but this time it involves 18-year-olds going off to neighboring colleges, seemingly to not only get away from their parents but to find themselves. Initially, Pookie's erratic behavior seems to put her in charge of the relationship, but eventually Jerry's ability to root himself in reality takes over. It does contain multiple usage of the Sandpipers' smash, "Come Saturday Morning".
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008)
One thing you can say about Judd Apatow produced and directed films is that they always depict men as emotionally unable to compete with women on an even keel. They also tend to be much longer than the average sex/romantic comedy since they seem to range from about 115 minutes to 140 minutes. Woody Allen took a long time to make a film longer than 95 minutes, but he was too naive to try to make big bucks initially. This film contains plenty of big laughs and smaller guffaws, but it mostly does represent a truth between the sexes, and that's why I tend to cut these Apatow comedies more slack than a few do around here. I keep hearing this idiotic mantra, "well, comedy is subjective..."; WTF? You don't think drama, horror, action, fantasy, etc. are subjective? OK, signing off.
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) +
This is just a terrific film, undoubtedly deserving a higher rating, but I still have to stay with my class. It's a terrific black comedy/paranoid thriller/suspense flick. It's crammed with so many dark and twisted things that it's almost unAmerican to accept how perfect the plot is. Remember, this film was released before the first Kennedy assassination. That's one of the main reasons it disappeared for so many years. I'm pretty sure that most people will agree that this film contains the best performances by Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, James Gregory and Angela Lansbury. The twisted dark humor, involving the brainwashing scene, has never been replicated; no, not even in Dr. Strangelove. Yes, this is in my Top 35 films, per my Top 100 List, so it probably needs a higher rating than , But I can be just as stubborn as you can.
Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks, 1960)
My number 2 film of all time. While watching this yesterday, I really had to step back, once again, and decide why I picked Jaws as my number 1 because I had this and "The Fish Movie" tied for first for so long that I never thought I'd have to perform an operation to separate them. Jaws is as close to perfection as a film comes, at least if not compared to this shining star of honest emotion, raucous characterization, contradiction in what's important in daily life, general "love thy neighbor" policy, deeply satirical interpretations of human behavior, and the basic law of "he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone". Elmer Gantry has probably the most amazing script ever written, with a non-stop collection of witty and pungent lines every few seconds. Richard Brooks easily wrote his best script, and performed his best direction, both visually and using his cast, and he deserves special kudos for making Elmer Gantry as relevant today as it it was almost 50 years ago when it came out. If you don't believe me, just check out this year's Presidential campaign.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page
Last edited by mark f; 10-10-08 at 08:23 PM.
