Gideon58's Reviews

Zelig
Woody Allen is a writer/director who has never been afraid to go where other artists fear to tread and proof of this can be found in a blazing technical achievement and cinematic oddity called Zelig which finds the Woodmeister putting his own spin on a movie genre that is frightening in its authenticity, almost making the viewer forget they are experiencing a work of fiction.

The 1983 film is actually a documentary centered around a fictional figure named Leonard Zelig. Zelig was a human chameleon, a man able to look and act like whatever people he is associating with at the moment and blend in seamlessly, even blessed with the ability to change the pigment of his skin to blend in with people of another race. It is eventually revealed that Leonard Zelig has mental health issues that are somehow connected to this ability and a psychiatrist named Dr. Eudorah Fletcher (Mia Farrow) decides to make a study of Zelig and finds herself falling in love with him.

This synopsis might sound like the plot of a typical Woody Allen comedy but this is anything but. Woody mounts this story in the form of an actual documentary, beginning during the 1920's and utilizing actual news and Hollywood footage that show Leonard Zelig interacting with everyone from Fanny Brice to Adolph Hitler. Woody seamlessly blends his character and the Eudorah Fletcher character into authentic news footage (with a serious assist from editor Susan E Morse), providing the story with an air of authenticity unlike anything I have ever seen. This film looks so real that I actually found myself pausing the movie in the middle and googling whether or not Leonard Zelig was a real person.

Like most documentaries, the film follows Leonard's humble beginnings as the human chameleon who used his abilities to enter important social circles and how the pressure of moving through these circles causes him to crack and then become the obsession of Dr. Fletcher, whose care and devotion turns him into a media celebrity when he actually stops being a chameleon. Then in a turn we don't see coming, consequences of Zelig's chameleon behavior trigger a tragic relapse.

Allen is to be applauded for creating a squirm worthy piece of screen entertainment that provides more nervous laughs than I've experienced in a long time. I also loved the choice Woody made of writers like Susan Sontag, Irving Howe, and Saul Bellow serving as commentators for the documentary while having older actors playing the fictional characters in the present, adding even more realism to the proceedings. In addition to Fanny Brice and Hitler, we also get to see Zelig and Dr. Fletcher interact with Charles Chaplin James Cagney, Carole Lombard, Joe DiMaggio, Marie Dressler, Babe Ruth, Billy Rose, William Randolph Hearst, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others. A cinematic curio to be sure, but a sparkling technical achievement.

I've been wanting to see Zelig for the longest time, good to see you really liked it.

The In-Laws (2003)
The inspired casting of Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks in the lead roles makes The In-Laws, the overblown 2003 remake of the 1979 comedy that starred Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, worth checking out.

Brooks plays Jerry Peyser, a neurotic podiatrist with a deathly fear of heights, who is excitedly preparing for his daughter's wedding, but is upset about the fact that the groom's father, Steve Tobias (Douglas) has cancelled three meetings for them to meet. On the evening Jerry and Steve finally meet with their son (Ryan Reynolds) and daughter (Lyndsey Sloane), Jerry finds out that Steve is actually a CIA agent and before you can say "James Bond", Jerry finds himself waist-deep in Steve's latest mission, a mess that gets even messier when Jerry learns from the FBI that Steve is actually a rogue CIA agent who was dismissed from the agency because he was mentally unstable.

It's been about a hundred years since I've seen the original 1979 film, but what I do remember is that the film seemed to concentrate on the relationship between the in-laws and not so much on the James Bond, cloak and dagger stuff. This film, co-written by Andrew Bergman, who wrote the original, begins with a very lengthy Bond-type mini-adventure showing Steve in the middle of his current mission that is supposed to establish who Steve Tobias is, but it goes on way longer than it needs to. It's not until Jerry;goes into the restroom at a restaurant and finds Steve beating the crap out of a guy that the story really kicks in. This version of the film does beef up the expected action, but it's the relationship between these two very different guys that is the core of this story and what made the 1979 film so funny.

Albert Brooks' nerdy podiatrist is a perfect counterpart to Michael Douglas' ultra-smooth super spy. I loved the way the story immediately sets up the fact that Jerry has a fear of heights and then keeps the character in the air for the majority of the running time. Loved when Jerry wakes up after being drugged by Steve and finds himself on Barbra Streisand's private plane that Steve "borrowed" from her (when you go the bathroom, an instrumental version of "The Way We Were" starts playing). Their parachuting adventure and the water-logged wedding finale, which featured "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" filling the audio, were also major highlights.

Michael Douglas offers one of his slickest performances as Tobias and Brooks is a lot of fun as Peyser, as is David Suchet, cast radically against type, as a bisexual bad guy who has the hots for Jerry. Ryan Reynolds makes the most of a thankless role and there is a fabulous cameo by Candice Bergen as Steve's ex-wife, but it's Douglas and Brooks that make this one worth investing in.

Betsy's Wedding
Alan Alda served as director, screenwriter, and star of Betsy's Wedding, an effervescent 1990 comedy that suffers a little due to an overly complex screenplay, but the story problems are offset by a superb ensemble cast, all working at the top of their game.

Alda's updating of the old Spencer Tracy classic Father of the Bride finds him playing Eddie Hopper, a contractor who is thrilled to learn that his younger daughter, Betsy (Molly Ringwald) is engaged, but really can't afford to give her the lavish wedding that he wants and she doesn't. Not wanting to be out done by the groom's wealthy parents who have offered to pay for everything, Eddie turns to his greasy brother-in-law, Oscar (Joe Pesci) who gets Eddie hooked up with a mob boss (Burt Young) and his mob prince (Anthony LaPaglia), who finds himself falling for Eddie's older daughter, Connie (Ally Sheedy), a romantically-challenged cop.

Alda's intentions are on the money here, but the basic story branches out in so many directions that the viewer almost needs a scorecard to keep track of everything that's going on here. The competition with the future in-laws and how all the wedding planning is tearing the couple apart were expected parts of the story, but did we really care about scummy Oscar cheating on his wife (Catherine O'Hara, in a glorious cameo) and her cheating him out of his money? Did we really need Eddie getting advice from the ghost of his dead father (Joey Bishop, in his final film role), or Eddie's nightmares involving encounters with wild animals that always conclude with him wrestling with his wife (Madeline Kahn), mistaking her for the animal? It also seemed that Alda's take on mobster and mob life smacked of cliche...the dialogue was overly affected and the chase that ensued when someone tries to take out Burt Young's character was the film's weakest scene.

What works here is this incredible cast that Alda has assembled to tell his story. It was a refreshing change watching Madeline Kahn playing it relatively straight for a change without getting lost in the shuffle. Nicholas Coster and the late Bibi Besch were a lot of fun as the groom's parents and it was a lot of fun seeing Ringwald and Sheedy playing sisters, five years after The Breakfast Club. Anthony LaPaglia is a total charmer in his De Niro-esque turn as the mob prince and Joe Pesci steals every scene he's in as the obnoxious Oscar.

Another thing that I did like about the screenplay for this film that I have found to be a problem with a lot of Alda's work is that he has actually given the characters their own brains and thoughts and voices. In most of Alan Alda's films, all of the characters talk exactly like Alan Alda, but that wasn't the case here. These characters were their own people and Alda never allows his character or his direction to get in the way of that, which sets this film apart from most of his film work as a writer and director and made this cinematic journey a lot of fun. And you gotta love Betsy's wedding dress.

I like the original version of The In-Laws, but I haven't seen the remake. I like both Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, so I'll have to check it out. I added it to my watchlist.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

White Oleander
A very special mother/daughter relationship and the performances by the actresses who bring the relationship to life are at the core of a riveting and squirm-worthy drama called White Oleander that takes ugly and unexplained detours here and there, but provides solid entertainment for the most part.

Astrid (Allison Lohman) is a sensitive, 15 year old aspiring artist who has a very special relationship with her mother, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer), a beautiful and free-spirited poet who lives without filter. Astrid and Ingrid's relationship is forever altered when Ingrid is sent to jail for murder and Astrid gets tossed into the system, bouncing from one foster home to another, not to mention the home of an effervescent but insecure actress (Renee Zellweger).

Screenwriter Mary Agnes Donoghue (Beaches)) has crafted a story revolving around a mother and daughter where the mother and daughter are kept apart for the majority of the running time. We see the evolution of Astrid as she flounders in her struggle for a real home and how so much of her unhappiness stems from the myriad secrets that her mother has kept from her. Ingrid's influence on Astrid is initially hard to grasp until those scenes where Astrid visits her mother in jail and the power that Ingrid still has over her daughter, even from behind bars, comes vividly to life. The most interesting mother/daughter relationship I have seen since Terms of Endearment.

Director Peter Kosminsky paints in some bold directorial strokes and makes some interesting choices in terms of storytelling. There is an extremely inventive piece of direction when Ingrid and the actress meet for the first time and Ingrid suggests that Astrid leave Ingrid alone with the actress so that they can talk privately. It was a bit of a shock that the viewer is not privy to this pivotal encounter between the two characters, filming the characters from a distance and forcing us to wonder what is being said. Ironically, this conversation that we never hear has profound effect on the rest of the story.

Kosminsky also works wonders with a clearly hand-picked cast...Allison Lohman is incredible as Astrid, making the transition that the character goes through completely believable, Equally impressive were Amy Aquino as a sympathetic child service worker, Robin Wright Penn in a flashy turn as a foster parent, and Patrick Fugit as a love interest for Astrid, Fugit's first film after his star-making performance in Almost Famous. However, towering above them all was an absolutely sizzling performance by Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid, a powerhouse turn that should have earned her an Oscar nomination and made this film worth sitting through by itself.

Not as good as the original, but still solid and a whole lot of fun. I gave it the same rating.

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

Sounds like it's worth watching. I've been wanting to check out some of Lohman's live-action work ever since really liking her as the title character in Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

I personally love this movie because of its laziness and accidental charm.

The writing is atrocious but the cast really throws some jazz down.

"He's feeding me information and I'm saying yes!"

Cape Fear (1962)
My recent viewing of the 1946 thriller The Night of the Hunter motivated me to finally sit down and take in another great performance from the iconic Robert Mitchum...the original Cape Fear, a moody psychological thriller that works thanks to a consistently fascinating story and strong direction that creates Hitchcock-calibre suspense throughout.

The 1962 film stars Mitchum as Max Cady, a man who has been recently released from prison after eight years, who has come to the hometown of Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), a lawyer who testified against him in the crime that got him put away, who not only immediately informs Bowden of his presence in town but begins paying a little too much attention to Bowden's wife, Peggy (Polly Bergen), and his daughter, Nancy (Lori Martin).

James R. Webb's screenplay, based on a novel by James McDonald, is a well-rounded story that doesn't just center on a psychopath terrorizing an innocent family, but also provides insight into the psychopath and the true motives behind his terrorizing this family, something I never really got with the 1991 Martin Scorsese remake.

The story is especially compelling because of this enigmatic character Max Cady, who establishes his penchant for evil minutes into the film, but what makes Max different from other movie psychos is that his evil is seamlessly blended with intelligence. This guy not only has a brain, but utilizes it during his incarceration studying the law which is what allowed him to get away with a lot of what he does. He knows exactly what lines he can cross and can't and stay within the law, which makes it appear like the screenplay is protecting the character, but the character is well-insulated because of his own intelligence. I was troubled as to why an intelligent guy like Cady would make such an obvious "tell" by beating up that girl he met in the bar. I guess this was supposed to establish for the viewer how dangerous Cady is, but it seemed to work against the character.

Director J. Lee Thompson is undeniably effective in creating a layer of suspense that pervades the proceedings and had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire running time. The film features exquisite black and white photography and Bernard Herrmann's music is perfection. Just as he was for The Night of the Hunter. Mitchum was again robbed of an Oscar nomination for his bone-chilling Max Cady, which is the backbone of this thriller. Peck is a sincere and square-jawed hero and Polly Bergen has never been better as Peggy Bowden, the terrified spouse who never looses her head. Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen, and Telly Savalas (with hair), provide solid support and mention must be made of dancer Barrie Chase, who does a memorable turn as Cady's first victim.

Of course, Martin Scorsese remade this film in 1991 with Robert De Niro as Max Cady, Nick Nolte as Sam Bowden, and Jessica Lange as Bowden's wife. Scorsese did honor the original film by casting Mitchum, Peck, and Balsam in supporting roles, but I think this film is a little better than the remake thanks to subtler direction by J Lee Thompson and a more layered performance from the incredible Robert Mitchum.

The Falcon and the Snowman
Richly detailed direction by the legendary John Schlesinger and some solid performances are the primary selling points of The Falcon and the Snowman, a 1985 fact-based drama which finds a lifelong friendship destroyed by things like greed, betrayal, and, believe it or not, treason.

This chilling true story stars Timothy Hutton as Christopher Boyce, a recent seminary dropout who returns home and steps back into the shadow of his father (Pat Hingle), a retired FBI agent until he gets a job at a government agency where he is privy to a lot of sensitive and important government documents regarding space projects, among other things that often cross his desk accidentally. Christopher's shock at the information crossing his desk impulsively motivates him to implore the assistance of childhood friend and co-alter boy Daulton Lee (Sean Penn), a drug dealer on the run for multiple charges, to help him sell government secrets to the Russian embassy in Mexico.

This is another one of those stories that finds a lot of its power in it being a true story, based on a universal principle that almost no one can reconcile with...the betrayal of our country. Screenwriter Steve Zaillian has crafted a rich screenplay based on true events that takes a pretty broad look at this bizarre story from several angles we don't really see coming. Christopher's troubled relationship with his father documented at the beginning of the story seems to be pure exposition at first, but this relationship actually triggers a lot of Christopher's behavior in the story, particularly when Christopher's guilt about what he's doing kicks in. As a card carrying democrat, Christopher initially thought that selling government secrets would be an effective way to "stick it to the man", but when the seriousness of what he's doing comes to light, he's too deep to get out. I love near the end when he's being questioned by authorities about his crimes, it's a combination of arrogant pride and massive relief. It's one of Hutton's best scenes in the film.

The other side of the story is the deliciously entertaining character of Daulton Lee, brought to glorious life by Sean Penn, in a performance that should have earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Lee thinks he has found a way out of his legal troubles with a new career as a Mexican James Bond, but his greed and carelessness not only trigger his expected downfall, but get him in much deeper trouble than he even imagined. Watching what happens to Daulton here is a sobering indictment regarding the consequences of a US citizen breaking the law in a foreign country.

Schlesinger effectively mounts this story of betrayal and patriotism against a canvas based on a friendship that is eventually destroyed without ever forgetting that these two guys are best friends, despite their tumultuous pasts. I love the look on Christopher's parents face when they arrive with supplies for his new apartment and they discover Daulton is there...the tension in that scene can be cut with a knife.

Five years after winning an Oscar for Ordinary People, Timothy Hutton gives one of his strongest performances as the complicated Christopher and I also loved Hingle and Richard A. Dysart as Hutton and Penn's fathers, but it is the extraordinary and often explosive performance of Sean Penn that keeps this one on sizzle. Penn offers another post graduate acting class creating one of cinema's most flawed and yet entertaining characters, even though I suspect the real Daulton Lee wasn't nearly as entertaining as this one. research revealed that, after serving over 20 years a piece in prison for treason, the real Christopher Boyce and Daulton Lee have been released from prison. This is compelling documentation of true events that still makes riveting entertainment almost 35 year later.

101 Dalmatians (1961)
A classic from the Disney library, 101 Dalmatians doesn't have the sophistication or the imagination of the Pixar studios, but still provides sparkling entertainment for the young and the young at heart and features one of the greatest cinematic villains ever.

Set in England, this is the story of a pair of spotted dalmatians named Pongo and Perdita who are overjoyed when Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies, but their happiness is short-lived when the puppies are kidnapped by a couple of dim-witted bad guys employed by Cruella DeVille, the evil and demented former schoolmate of Perdita's mistress, who wants to turn the puppies into coats, along with the other 84 dalmatians that Cruella has already procured for her evil fashion mission.

The creative forces behind Disney classics like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty have created another imaginative story where human sensibilities are given to animals and the humans in the story are either villains or instruments of exposition. The story begins with Pongo arranging for his "pet" Roger, to meet Perdita's pet, Anita and pretty much drives the romance between the two humans, whose romance eventually hits the backburner while Pongo, Perdita, and these adorable puppies take center stage.

So much of Disney's work in the 60's and 70's is set in England and I've always wondered why and I think I figured it out after viewing this film. The English have a very colorful way with language that is alternately sophisticated and humorous that allows the writers to be much more creative with the dialogue.

But the best thing about this movie, like so many other Disney animated features, is the villain, the fabulous Cruella DeVill (brilliantly voiced by Betty Lou Gershon), who lights up the screen every time she appears. If you close your eyes and listen to the character, she actually sounds a little like Bette Davis, who I'm convinced was the writers' inspiration for the character and Gershon's interpretation of the character. The voice work serves the story, especially Rod Taylor as Pongo, but voice casting wasn't the priority in 1961 animation as it is now, evidenced in a lot of the actors involved voice three or four character a piece, but they give each character a distinctive sound so the viewer doesn't really notice. The story is the thing here, and on that level, this is top-notch entertainment. The film has been followed by two animated sequels and two live action sequels which featured Glenn Close as Cruella DeVill.

You know, I just watched the remake of Cape Fear for my Scorsese week. I'm not sure if I want to see the original or not, but I do like Gregory Peck.


That's the same rating I would give 101 Dalmatians. It's probably the worst of the Disney movies before Disney's death, but it's still a good time for dog lovers.


I am definitely adding White Oleander to my to-do list.

White Oleander is appointment viewing for Michelle Pfeiffer fans, she has never been better.

I do need more Michelle Pfeiffer in my life. My favorite role of her's is Catwoman.

Check her out in Grease 2 (1982), she's a peach in that.

I heard she's the only good thing about Grease 2.

You heard wrong It's a fun movie, sort of like a 2 hour long 80s music video. The people who knock it, can't stop from comparing it to the original Grease, but other than the name and a few secondary characters, they're both very different movies.

Dolemite is My Name
A dazzling performance from Eddie Murphy is at the center of a richly entertaining biopic called Dolemite is My Name that, as good as it is, probably won't do great box office due to the fact that its subject is someone most moviegoers have never heard of and don't care about.

This 2019 film chronicles the shooting star that was the career of Rudy Ray Moore, a second rate nightclub emcee who carved out a new career for himself creating a style of musical rhymes that would eventually morph into what we call rap today and parlay that into a movie career when he gets a chance to bring a character he created named Dolemite to the big screen,

Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are no strangers to biopics having written the screenplays for The People VS Larry Flynt, Big Eyes, and the film this one most reminded me of Ed Wood because the story is centered around a show business figure who wasn't really very good at what he did but made the most of his 15 minutes.

Director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) mounts Rudy's story with loving respect and detail, almost too much detail, as the center of the film between Rudy's nightclub career and his movie career, starts to sag a little, but what's on either side of that center is pure gold. It was so much fun watching Rudy's humble beginnings gathering the material for his raps and making it his own. It was equally as fun watching Rudy get a hard lesson in the reality of movie making and how it's not as easy as it might appear. There is a particularly lovely moment in the film that Murphy nails where Rudy is worried about filming a sex scene because he's afraid people will laugh at his big belly.

Eddie Murphy has not been this entertaining onscreen since Dreamgirls, offering a performance that is just as Oscar-worthy as that one was. Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, and Tituss Burgess are a lot of fun as the loyal members of Rudy's posse. Cheers as well to Keegan-Michael Key as Dolemite screenwriter Jerry Jones and an especially hilarious return to films for Wesley Snipes, playing D'Urville Martin, the flamboyantly gay director and co-star of Dolemite. Production values are on the money, especially the outrageous costumes that scream the 60's and 70's. Scenes from the original 1975 film Dolemite are actually featured near the conclusion of this film, which looked kind of silly next to this loving and lavish tribute to its star and creator.

Devil in a Blue Dress
Crisp and atmospheric direction and one of Denzel Washington's most underrated performances are the primary reasons to check out 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, a stylish homage to the film noir genre that earns its credentials through a racial tension that provides a welcome layer to the slightly complex story without beating the viewer over the head with it.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1940's, this is the story of Easy Rawlins, an unemployed black man two months behind on his mortgage and afraid of losing his house. With an assist from his bartender/friend, Joppy, Easy gets hired by a gangster named Dewitt Albright to locate a woman named Daphne Monet, who is not only connected to Albright's boss, a big shot politician named Matthew Terrell, but to a connected millionaire named Todd Carter. It's not long before Easy finds himself waist-deep in a political/mob scandal where bodies are dropping around him like flies.

Director and screenwriter Carl Franklin (One False Move) has mounted a stunning recreation of 1940's Los Angeles that owes a lot to films like The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, but this story is given a unique flavor with a central character who is African American, which is consistently addressed throughout as Easy and the viewer are never allowed to forget that, in 1941, this is still a black man in a white man's world and Franklin'ss screenplay carefully examines that concept without the sledgehammer intensity that pervades so many other racially motivated dramas.

It's fun watching what Easy goes through here...from the desperate unemployed guy to the guy with the detective sensibilities who has no idea what he has gotten himself into. Despite his reticence about the gravity of what is going on, it is almost halfway through the film before Easy even considers the fact that he may be in over his head, but by this time, several of the black hats involved are throwing enough money at him that he is unable to walk away, not to mention his watching people he really cares about die as part of this ugliness.

Franklin's recreation of 40's LA is flawless, utilizing authentic looking settings, automobiles, and costumes that give this film an authentic period feel. Denzel Washington is slick and sexy as Easy Rawlins, delivering one of his smoothest performances that somehow has not gotten the attention it deserves and mention should also be a made of a star-making, Oscar-worthy turn by Don Cheadle, as a partner of Easy's with a very itchy trigger finger, who gets to deliver my favorite line in the film: "If you didn't want him dead, why'd you leave him with me?" This one is a lot of fun and a must for Denzel fans.