Billy Budd (Peter Ustinov, 1962)
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Terrific interpretation by director/co-scripter Ustinov of the Herman Melville novella. Melville is always crammed with Biblical allusions and this one is a great depiction of Good (debuting Terence Stamp) vs. Evil (Robert Ryan) during British naval wartime against Napoleon. It's one of those films where all the pieces fit together and you start to get a knot in your stomach because you fear for Billy's life the second that Claggart sets eyes on him. This film is just as powerful in its own way as
Paths iof Glory and
Twelve Angry Men, although it never quite reaches their heights. Nevertheless, the ugly truth of what it says about human nature could scarcely be more poetic.
The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949)
; Cult Rating:
Unusual adaptation of the Pushkin novel looks and sounds strange, with opulent cinematography and sets and a generally eerie story about a soldier (Anton Walbrook) who goes to the house of chance, but never spends any money because of his poor upbringing. Eventually, he comes across a book with the secret of the cards (the game of Faro) and puts two and two together to determine that an aging local noblewoman (Dame Edith Evans, in her film debut) knows that secret. The build-up is very atmospheric, if low-key, but the final card game is depicted in a highly-suspenseful manner which turns the flick into a cult item.
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Alien is a classic and one of those films which should be seen on as large a screen as possible. True, it borrows a lot from
It! The Terror from Beyond Space and
Planet of the Vampires, but its budget and technical/creative team (including H.R. Giger) allow it to be far more spectacular than those low-budget flicks.
Alien is a terriifc example of a sci-fi/horror flick. The first half is mind-bending sci-fi showing things which had never really been shown before, especially within what appeared to be such spectacular and wide-open sets (even if some were matte paintings). The second half is one of the better claustrophobic monster-on-the-loose flicks aboard the spaceship. This film should really belong in the
mafo's MoFo 100 List.
The Big Lebowski (Coen Bros., 1998)
; Cult Rating:
The Coens do the slacker SoCal Dude, and as far as the main characters go, they do them extremely well. Everybody in the pic above could scarcely be better. However, for me, the film is let down by the convoluted "Big" film noir plot and the characters involved with that, especially poor Julianne Moore. What I have to say won't change anybody's mind though. I think it's funny and entertaining but only half-successful. Now, to show you what I mean and how screwed-up I am, I think it's twice as successful as another offbeat modern film noir,
The Long Goodbye, so I'm ducking and covering now...
Bicentennial Man (Chris Columbus, 1999)
I finally watched this sucka after years of avoiding it for fear of a saccharine overdose. Don't worry, I didn't pay any money for it. It's very long but it's surprisingly cohesive. Sure, it suffers from some of the same problems as Columbus's
Stepmom and whatever other of his films you dislike, but it contains some interesting characters and situations, as well as a couple of silly ones. Robin Williams surprisingly keeps most of his schtick out of the flick. For me, it pales compared to
A.I., but it's kinda surprising that it was being filmed at basically the same time.
The Cowboys (Mark Rydell, 1972)
John Wayne begged to be in this flick and got his wish. I'm not sure why he wanted to be in it, unless it was because of his character's fate or a chance to be a surrogate father, both situations which would have changed his film persona to an extent. As far as the film goes, it's a surprisingly-simplistic take on the situation. It's over two hours long although nothing very surprising happens. It's got a solid Bruce Dern performance as a sadistically-smiling Baddie, and Roscoe Lee Browne is helpful as the wise cook. Most of the kids are played well-enough, but, like I said, the whole thing is awfully predictable, so you pretty much know what everybody will do or what will be done to them within ten minutes of meeting them. The photography is good and John Williams' score is evocative of Aaron Copland, and most people who like Wayne and westerns like it. Just remember, I only give John Ford's
Stagecoach a high
!!
Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)
; Cult Rating:
Low-budget film shot on the Los Angeles coast (Venice, Santa Monica) about a lonely sailor (Dennis Hopper) who meets and falls for an otherworldly young woman (Linda Lawson) who plays a mermaid at a beach carnival. There is very little plot and much of what transpires comes across as the actors talking with each other rather than the characters interacting. However, director Harrington brings enough low-pro technique to the affair to maKe it easy enough to watch just in case
something does happen. Needless to say, it's a fairy tale, so you have to know that it will either end poorly (Brothers Grimm, H.C. Andersen) or well (Disney). The more you're familiar with Harrington, the more you'll know how it may turn out.
Wolf (Mike Nichols, 1994)
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This is also very atmospheric, but it's quite a bit more witty and sophisticated. Nicholson gets to play his publishing executive with real relish and transforms himself from a tired has-been into a wily, athletic up-and-comer after he gets bitten by a wolf. He has plenty of venom to spread around, but he's also getting randy and sets his sights and both of his heads on his boss's daughter Michelle Pfeiffer. Although this is technically a werewolf flick, it's not really interested in the transformations. In fact, the last part of the film where the more-literal wolf "action" occurs is easily the weakest part of the film. Even so, there's plenty of well-crafted entertainment to be found here, especially the gorgeous, scary Giuseppe Rotunno cinematography and the Ennio Morricone score, highly reminiscent of his jazzy
Bugsy score.
Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore, 2009)
Moore tries to keep as up-to-date as possible in this examination of the 2008 financial meltdown and who and what are responsible, at least according to him. Moore blames everybody, and he does get quite specific about it, but here he points his finger at more Democrats than ever before. Moore also presents lots of pathetic individuals who were kicked out of their homes of 20-40 years because they were suckered into refinancing and then couldn't pay up when they became disabled or lost all their savings due to hospitalization or the stock market collapse. Meanwhile, several fat cats, mostly involved with the Federal government, become rich. Then there are the low-earning people who die, leaving their families penniless while their companies collect huge life insurance payoffs on policies they secretly took out on them, basically gambling on their unlikely deaths. Moore's position is basically that the U.S. is a democracy but that capitalism is anti-democracy. He even brings in the Catholic Church to explain that capitalism is anti-Christ. As you can see, Moore still has an agenda, but it's an agenda which should be seen and discussed by people of all political persuasions.