½
Grey Lady (2017) - Shea
A policeman’s partner / wife is executed before his eyes and he is either locked out of the investigation (she was shot with his gun) or suspended or given forced time off or whatever, so he travels to Nantucket to continue his own insular investigation from there---fortunately the murderers follow him. Our hero has a great authentic Bostonian accent; he majestically pronounces “auhnt” through-out the film but forgets to do all the other words with the same inflection. The director has an unfortunate tic of giving certain characters a big splashy moment which means they are going to be killed off in the next scene. This was hypnotically bad; I would liken this film to watching someone completely drunk trying to get to his feet and falling down again and again and again, unaware he’s trying to stand on ice.
★½
The Rewrite (2014) - Lawrence
A tale of dueling shticks: Hugh Grant does his loveable bumbler routine as a washed up screenwriter taking a temporary teaching gig in the sticks and Marisa Tomei does her fetching older woman (with two young daughters) routine. That they will end up together is never in question as they bumble and fetch together. The great drama is that he insults a sensitive Jane Austin specialist the first day at a faculty party and she is out for blood the rest of the film and wants to have him fired. At the end of the movie he simply asks her to give him another chance and she does.
★★
Instant Family (2018) - Anders
The film almost has too much sugar content to be legitimately classified as an adoption PSA. Wahlberg shows the guns in his designer tee-shirts and strikes a manly pose in his signature line of Tough Guy Trousers © throw in a tool belt and adoption is no longer a viable challenge. Once Rose Byrne makes goo goo her eyes at her new brood, it’s a done deal. Hell you can even throw in the most dangerous type of child in the system, the dreaded older teenager. Iliza Shlesinger gets a small bit part as a single white woman who wants to blind side the dickens out of some future hall of famer.
★★½
The Collector (1967) - Rohmer
This is a talky French film with some insufferable intellectuals squatting in their rich friend’s St. Tropez villa. The collector is a lusty young woman who sleeps around indiscriminate of emotional attachments but totally uninterested in our bookish older man. He’s a professional collector. He says he wants to revel in his solitude; he wants to spend the month reading important books, swimming in the ocean, and sunbathing but the second he gets his wish, he bails on the vacation. This felt a bit slight but on reflection this is going to get a lot better with a re-watch; there are some deeper structures at play here. The objet d’art: a pop can lined with razor blades which seems to be symbolic of the way they use language and conversation to keep the world from getting a hold on them.
Inherent Vice (2016) - Anderson
This started off as a nice soft-boiled detective story in stoner land, where everyone suddenly goes missing only to be discovered alive and kicking and stoned a couple hours later. Near the end unfortunately, there is a rather cruel and nasty tonal shift that sabotages everything that came before it.
Barton Fink (1991) - Coen
Although presented as a nightmare scenario, this is actually about a winning lottery ticket. At the end the studio head will deprive the world of Barton Fink’s genius and as a punishment he will be kept on salary---not to write. This is a version of heaven. This princely sum would come in today at over 17,000 dollars a week--- to do nothing. His biggest problem will be in deciding which mansion he should buy. The range of craftsmanship between the stellar heights of Bunuel’s buzzing box and the cellar lows Coen’s of brown paper gift is painfully evident here.
★★★
The Hangman (1959) - Curtiz
If you hunt monsters for a living, you ought to be very careful that you don’t turn into one yourself. Our lawman no longer does range work and travels exclusively from town to town by stagecoach. He simply collects and escorts the garbage to the gallows. Hunting the worst of the worse has made our lawman cold and cynical and the people he meets utterly predictable. This last job is a little more problematic, when people find out the identity of the condemned criminal he is in town to collect; no one believes him for a second. The guy is a decent, hard- working family man and everybody is willing to help him escape his clutches, to the point of breaking the law themselves to protect him. Rather than a western this is more of reflection (with some cheese cake) on frontier justice.
Shadows in Paradise (1986) - Kaurismäki
Numbed by the years a working guy is nudged towards a life change when an older worker secures financing for a new company and taps him as his second in command. The old guy has been working as a garbage truck driver for 25 years and vows he is not going to die there. He had promised his wife as newlywed that he would show her the world and he wants to make good on that promise in their twilight years. He promptly has a heart attack and dies a couple of days later; but a seed has been planted in our hero. Having his lethargy shaken from him, he feels adventurous enough to ask out a mousy supermarket cashier and wows her with a hot and heavy evening of bingo, she dumps him after the second game but their paths keep crossing.
Green Book (2018) - Farrelly
This follows the standard recipe for the prefect martini (and road movie); take two opposite characters that go together like water and oil, put them in a martini glass (or motor vehicle) and they are shaken by the trip, but not stirred. There is some nice method acting riffs by Mortensen, he’s got a pot belly here; he does gluttony contests at the drop of hot dog; he’s handy with his mitts but draws the line at becoming a career thug. He’s a great contrast to the lonely, articulate jazz musician who wants to make a difference in the world, one concert at a time. I liked the time posts, obsessively identifying the months and weeks in question, either to show how far America has come from that period or how America has scarcely changed.
Body Snatch (2003) - Hanss
The other dancers in the gentlemen’s club tease Laura about her new conquest who sits in a corner week after week worshipping her, although they choke a little on their cackles after they discover the guy is loaded. He keeps proposing the storybook life to her and finally she decides to take him up on it and leave her crazy life behind. She has a fiery car crash on the drive to her future mansion. She awakens in a long term care facility; the crash has rendered her deaf, her body is horribly scarred and burnt, and yet the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes is her Prince Charming arriving with her daily bouquet; he maintained a bedside vigil for weeks and months when she was in a coma, and his undying, eternal love for her shines even more brightly. Wow, she really lucked out. Or did she?
At Eternity’s Gate (2018) - Schnabel
This is the umpteenth hagiography on the unappreciated, mad genius of Vincent Van Gogh; a painter so original he never sold a single painting in his lifetime which has obvious appeal to commercial film makers where the box office determines each and every artistic stroke. You’re here for the lush imagery that transcribes his desperate passion; the director uses a strange bifocal lens in certain scenes which obscures the bottom of the frame. The end credits state a priceless notebook was recently discovered (conveniently forgotten and undiscovered in someone’s bookcase) for 116 years … ka-ching ka-ching. Van Gogh is now the artist with the most prestigious amount of forgeries hanging in the world’s great museums; it turns out originality is the easiest thing to fake. On the downside the director gives himself a huge continuity headache when the artist slices off his ear half way through the film.
Good time (2017) - Benny & Josh Safdie
The only thing our anti-hero has going for him is the gift of gab; he can talk his way in and out of any situation but he doesn’t seem to realize that not all forward motion is motion forward. Our boy puts his head down and just bulls his way past each and very obstacle; the film is a winner-take-all endurance contest between grim reality and relentless optimism. There are only two tiny pin pricks of intrusive reality in the entire film. The first one is a character-tell where a mother has loaded up her (dim witted and vulnerable) daughter’s purse with a fistful of credit cards, but none of them work. And the second one is near the end when a character suddenly turns to our boy and says; “Jesus, how many years are you facing?” And the audience realizes with a gasp that the meter has been on and running the entire time during his crime spree and he won’t see daylight a very long time indeed. That is, unless he gets the chance to speak in his own defensive.
The Favourite (2018) - Lanthimos
In a feudal society the royal court is the only place where fortune can be made. This is a glimpse at the wretched aristocracy and a cautionary tale between two actresses losing and gaining the upper hand. I loved the fish eye lenses, where the gravitational pull was so compelling you can feel the heat on your face as one approached the realms of power and immediately your life became small and insignificant the moment favor moved away from you. Although the thematic question the film poses is a little underwhelming: given the choice which would you prefer; getting unvarnished reality every day or the candy coated, soft tongued version of it … no one chooses the former.
Sisters (1972) - De Palma
This is a great little Psycho knock-off from the 70s. Bernard Hermann brings all his requisite Hitchcock baggage with the soundtrack. A fresh faced Margo Kidder works a French-Canadian accent trying to make it as a model in the Big Apple. Jennifer Salt is the intrepid reporter who sees a murder in broad daylight but no one believes her. Charles Durning has a nice supporting role as a recent night-school detective graduate who will go by the textbook and grind it out, no matter how long it takes to get his man. The film has a great body scar ever that would make even David Cronenberg flinch.
The Women (1939) - Cukor
True it to its title, there are no male actors in the film. The cast is a motley crew of high society women living only for the latest gossip; sultry vixens with fingernails painted gold digger red; and rich dumb divorcées ready for another stroll down the aisle. There is a strange product placement segment where the black and white film blossoms into glorious Technicolor for a fashion show then returns its regularly scheduled programming. The film even includes a work-out video and a cat fight at the Nevada divorce ranch.
Little Foxes (1941) - Wyler
I thought (because of the title) I was going to see and some southern belles preparing for their first Cotillion and a few gratuitous pillow fights, not quite. There was a slow set-up (but the fireworks in the third act more than make up for it) where the ultimate bad ass is revealed. This wouldn’t be out of place on a double bill with The Founder (2016)
★★★½
Klute * (1971) - Pakula
This is a brilliant character study of a complicated career gal in New York City. There is a great jittery soundtrack which immediately suggests the 70s paranoid thriller genre. She lives next door to a funeral home. Bree is irresistible; she supplies the permissive okay to her clients with her “Let it all hang out, baby; we are both mature adults here” spiel. The villain is wonderfully bent. He gets away with all his crimes, but can’t leave well enough alone. He jump starts the cold case by bringing in a private detective and begins dropping bread crumbs for him. Bree is the only clue to a missing (and now feared dead) business exec. She gets a seedy glimpse into her future when she helps the detective (Klute) track down a missing junkie /hooker. Klute is unafraid of her moods, unafraid of her anger, even though Bree keeps pushing him away he is always right there, in her face. She is completely baffled by this small town cop from the sticks. Fonda is given a couple of great acting scenes.
Four Days in September (1997) - Barreto
The film allows each and every character to be sympathetic in this kidnapping drama. Although a few of the characters carelessly self-incriminate themselves with their time in the spotlight. The ambassador is great with his semantic tap dancing. There is a horrid moment when the policeman justifies torture. He even admits the majority of his brutalized and broken victims are unsuspecting Poly Sci majors who learn the hard way that the state will do everything (up to and including mass murder) to keep power from falling legitimately into the hands of the people. There is a nice reminder that in a police state, all the old hens and malcontents will to remain at their assigned post as a sacred trust and flood the police snitch lines with tips on the people in their neighbourhood who appear odd, walk funny, do suspicious things (according to them) and they not above having people disappeared over old simmering grudges.
Mrs. Miniver (1942) - Wyler
This was made has a special invitation to the Yanks to please join World War 11. The British stiff upper lip is embodied by this one suburban family during the bombing campaign. The husband takes his Yacht for a spin over to Dunkirk and returns with it riddled with bullets. The son becomes an ace pilot. The entire male population of the town is hunting for a downed German bomber but the wife is the one that disarms and captures him. The poor sod’s arm hangs limp and useless at his side, he hasn’t eaten in four or five days, yet he still manages to uncork a great bug eyed, Hitlerian rant before being led away. Sunday service continues every week in a bombed out church. The morning after their house was bombed, they gather to survey the improvements: a splendid new panoramic view of the entire neighbourhood from the living room couch. It was at this point I imagined a comedy troupe was about to wander on screen and commandeer the film. “I’ve ‘ad worse, Gerry! Give it up!” The eponymous Mrs.Miniver is a prize winning rose: the secret ingredient? Horse manure; not unlike the propaganda in this film but this is devastatingly glorious propaganda.
Clara (2018) - Sherman
This is a low budget love fable masquerading as Science fiction. Our astrophysicistprofessor is on a downward trajectory. Ourcurmudgeon gets one smart ass question too many during his lecture and decides to go for the full body slam by proving logically that searching for the presence of extra-terrestrial life in the universe is a much a smarter bet then trying to find true romance here on earth. He’s called to the Dean’s office later that afternoon after a never ending parade of emotionally distraught and teary eyed students complaining he used big math to prove they were going to die alone and unloved. He is given the boot (who cares) but he gets his telescope time revoked (major problem) and now he needs a way back in.
A Pain in the Ass (1973) - Molinaro
This starts off a serious crime drama with a car bombing gone wrong; there is a quick settling of accounts where the careless bomber (the target is now in protective custody) is made redundant (bullet to the head) and a more competent man is given the contract. There is a nice hand held camera in certain scenes and the great stone face of Lino Ventura. The best thing about this film is the seamless transition; where the hitman remains in his gritty gangster film but a comedy slowly forms around him from until he is up to the neck (and I can pinpoint the exact moment when he goes under.) The hitman ends up in the countryside and needs to get back into town immediately for the kill shot. He simply steps in front of an oncoming car. The camera holds on the driver so I’m guessing this was a famous race car driver from the 60s, and they take off at a 120 mph. When he nervously reaches for the seat belt and buckles up, that is the moment when he concedes the defeat.
Hurry Sundown (1967) - Preminger
The film begins with an aerial shot of the wheelers and dealers already counting their lucre; the only thing that stands in the way of progress (in the year of our Lord 1946) are two plots at the edge of a (whites only) real estate development, and securing them from the share croppers is a mere formality. Resistance to change in the film is established with an ironic counterpoint; the new preacher man desegregates the highway to heaven and mixes the races during the Sunday sacrament, and an old white cracker goes ballistic over having to share his communion wafer with the coloreds. On the down side, the movie fails to establish and hold a realistic tone to the proceedings; Michael Caine and Jane Fonda both take a run at a southern drawl and fail; there is some bad looping (you can hear the redubs in certain scenes) and clocking in at 2:26 it’s one cool, lingering lemonade drink in the shade too many. On the upside, there is sly sexual innuendo and hilarious characterizations, like the old judge never goes anywhere without his rubber donut. This is a kind of a curiosity; but I liked this because of the duplicitous absurdity on display there.
Broken (2017) - Norris
Three (broken) families form an interactive triangle on a dead-end street in North London. The lead character’s name (Skunk) immediately suggested Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and immediately imposed that film’s perspective of a young girl’s point of view leaving childhood and entering the bewildering adult world. Her mom simply skipped town with another man. Her older brother delights in tormenting her about the sadistic hazing she is going to get when she enters high school at the end of summer. The first time director fills his scenes with business; there are delightful throwaway moments like tiny terror dancing on the stairs. This actually wants me to revisit TKAM simply to check out the age of Scout’s au pair.
Grey Lady (2017) - Shea
A policeman’s partner / wife is executed before his eyes and he is either locked out of the investigation (she was shot with his gun) or suspended or given forced time off or whatever, so he travels to Nantucket to continue his own insular investigation from there---fortunately the murderers follow him. Our hero has a great authentic Bostonian accent; he majestically pronounces “auhnt” through-out the film but forgets to do all the other words with the same inflection. The director has an unfortunate tic of giving certain characters a big splashy moment which means they are going to be killed off in the next scene. This was hypnotically bad; I would liken this film to watching someone completely drunk trying to get to his feet and falling down again and again and again, unaware he’s trying to stand on ice.
★½
The Rewrite (2014) - Lawrence
A tale of dueling shticks: Hugh Grant does his loveable bumbler routine as a washed up screenwriter taking a temporary teaching gig in the sticks and Marisa Tomei does her fetching older woman (with two young daughters) routine. That they will end up together is never in question as they bumble and fetch together. The great drama is that he insults a sensitive Jane Austin specialist the first day at a faculty party and she is out for blood the rest of the film and wants to have him fired. At the end of the movie he simply asks her to give him another chance and she does.
★★
Instant Family (2018) - Anders
The film almost has too much sugar content to be legitimately classified as an adoption PSA. Wahlberg shows the guns in his designer tee-shirts and strikes a manly pose in his signature line of Tough Guy Trousers © throw in a tool belt and adoption is no longer a viable challenge. Once Rose Byrne makes goo goo her eyes at her new brood, it’s a done deal. Hell you can even throw in the most dangerous type of child in the system, the dreaded older teenager. Iliza Shlesinger gets a small bit part as a single white woman who wants to blind side the dickens out of some future hall of famer.
★★½
The Collector (1967) - Rohmer
This is a talky French film with some insufferable intellectuals squatting in their rich friend’s St. Tropez villa. The collector is a lusty young woman who sleeps around indiscriminate of emotional attachments but totally uninterested in our bookish older man. He’s a professional collector. He says he wants to revel in his solitude; he wants to spend the month reading important books, swimming in the ocean, and sunbathing but the second he gets his wish, he bails on the vacation. This felt a bit slight but on reflection this is going to get a lot better with a re-watch; there are some deeper structures at play here. The objet d’art: a pop can lined with razor blades which seems to be symbolic of the way they use language and conversation to keep the world from getting a hold on them.
Inherent Vice (2016) - Anderson
This started off as a nice soft-boiled detective story in stoner land, where everyone suddenly goes missing only to be discovered alive and kicking and stoned a couple hours later. Near the end unfortunately, there is a rather cruel and nasty tonal shift that sabotages everything that came before it.
Barton Fink (1991) - Coen
Although presented as a nightmare scenario, this is actually about a winning lottery ticket. At the end the studio head will deprive the world of Barton Fink’s genius and as a punishment he will be kept on salary---not to write. This is a version of heaven. This princely sum would come in today at over 17,000 dollars a week--- to do nothing. His biggest problem will be in deciding which mansion he should buy. The range of craftsmanship between the stellar heights of Bunuel’s buzzing box and the cellar lows Coen’s of brown paper gift is painfully evident here.
★★★
The Hangman (1959) - Curtiz
If you hunt monsters for a living, you ought to be very careful that you don’t turn into one yourself. Our lawman no longer does range work and travels exclusively from town to town by stagecoach. He simply collects and escorts the garbage to the gallows. Hunting the worst of the worse has made our lawman cold and cynical and the people he meets utterly predictable. This last job is a little more problematic, when people find out the identity of the condemned criminal he is in town to collect; no one believes him for a second. The guy is a decent, hard- working family man and everybody is willing to help him escape his clutches, to the point of breaking the law themselves to protect him. Rather than a western this is more of reflection (with some cheese cake) on frontier justice.
Shadows in Paradise (1986) - Kaurismäki
Numbed by the years a working guy is nudged towards a life change when an older worker secures financing for a new company and taps him as his second in command. The old guy has been working as a garbage truck driver for 25 years and vows he is not going to die there. He had promised his wife as newlywed that he would show her the world and he wants to make good on that promise in their twilight years. He promptly has a heart attack and dies a couple of days later; but a seed has been planted in our hero. Having his lethargy shaken from him, he feels adventurous enough to ask out a mousy supermarket cashier and wows her with a hot and heavy evening of bingo, she dumps him after the second game but their paths keep crossing.
Green Book (2018) - Farrelly
This follows the standard recipe for the prefect martini (and road movie); take two opposite characters that go together like water and oil, put them in a martini glass (or motor vehicle) and they are shaken by the trip, but not stirred. There is some nice method acting riffs by Mortensen, he’s got a pot belly here; he does gluttony contests at the drop of hot dog; he’s handy with his mitts but draws the line at becoming a career thug. He’s a great contrast to the lonely, articulate jazz musician who wants to make a difference in the world, one concert at a time. I liked the time posts, obsessively identifying the months and weeks in question, either to show how far America has come from that period or how America has scarcely changed.
Body Snatch (2003) - Hanss
The other dancers in the gentlemen’s club tease Laura about her new conquest who sits in a corner week after week worshipping her, although they choke a little on their cackles after they discover the guy is loaded. He keeps proposing the storybook life to her and finally she decides to take him up on it and leave her crazy life behind. She has a fiery car crash on the drive to her future mansion. She awakens in a long term care facility; the crash has rendered her deaf, her body is horribly scarred and burnt, and yet the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes is her Prince Charming arriving with her daily bouquet; he maintained a bedside vigil for weeks and months when she was in a coma, and his undying, eternal love for her shines even more brightly. Wow, she really lucked out. Or did she?
At Eternity’s Gate (2018) - Schnabel
This is the umpteenth hagiography on the unappreciated, mad genius of Vincent Van Gogh; a painter so original he never sold a single painting in his lifetime which has obvious appeal to commercial film makers where the box office determines each and every artistic stroke. You’re here for the lush imagery that transcribes his desperate passion; the director uses a strange bifocal lens in certain scenes which obscures the bottom of the frame. The end credits state a priceless notebook was recently discovered (conveniently forgotten and undiscovered in someone’s bookcase) for 116 years … ka-ching ka-ching. Van Gogh is now the artist with the most prestigious amount of forgeries hanging in the world’s great museums; it turns out originality is the easiest thing to fake. On the downside the director gives himself a huge continuity headache when the artist slices off his ear half way through the film.
Good time (2017) - Benny & Josh Safdie
The only thing our anti-hero has going for him is the gift of gab; he can talk his way in and out of any situation but he doesn’t seem to realize that not all forward motion is motion forward. Our boy puts his head down and just bulls his way past each and very obstacle; the film is a winner-take-all endurance contest between grim reality and relentless optimism. There are only two tiny pin pricks of intrusive reality in the entire film. The first one is a character-tell where a mother has loaded up her (dim witted and vulnerable) daughter’s purse with a fistful of credit cards, but none of them work. And the second one is near the end when a character suddenly turns to our boy and says; “Jesus, how many years are you facing?” And the audience realizes with a gasp that the meter has been on and running the entire time during his crime spree and he won’t see daylight a very long time indeed. That is, unless he gets the chance to speak in his own defensive.
The Favourite (2018) - Lanthimos
In a feudal society the royal court is the only place where fortune can be made. This is a glimpse at the wretched aristocracy and a cautionary tale between two actresses losing and gaining the upper hand. I loved the fish eye lenses, where the gravitational pull was so compelling you can feel the heat on your face as one approached the realms of power and immediately your life became small and insignificant the moment favor moved away from you. Although the thematic question the film poses is a little underwhelming: given the choice which would you prefer; getting unvarnished reality every day or the candy coated, soft tongued version of it … no one chooses the former.
Sisters (1972) - De Palma
This is a great little Psycho knock-off from the 70s. Bernard Hermann brings all his requisite Hitchcock baggage with the soundtrack. A fresh faced Margo Kidder works a French-Canadian accent trying to make it as a model in the Big Apple. Jennifer Salt is the intrepid reporter who sees a murder in broad daylight but no one believes her. Charles Durning has a nice supporting role as a recent night-school detective graduate who will go by the textbook and grind it out, no matter how long it takes to get his man. The film has a great body scar ever that would make even David Cronenberg flinch.
The Women (1939) - Cukor
True it to its title, there are no male actors in the film. The cast is a motley crew of high society women living only for the latest gossip; sultry vixens with fingernails painted gold digger red; and rich dumb divorcées ready for another stroll down the aisle. There is a strange product placement segment where the black and white film blossoms into glorious Technicolor for a fashion show then returns its regularly scheduled programming. The film even includes a work-out video and a cat fight at the Nevada divorce ranch.
Little Foxes (1941) - Wyler
I thought (because of the title) I was going to see and some southern belles preparing for their first Cotillion and a few gratuitous pillow fights, not quite. There was a slow set-up (but the fireworks in the third act more than make up for it) where the ultimate bad ass is revealed. This wouldn’t be out of place on a double bill with The Founder (2016)
★★★½
Klute * (1971) - Pakula
This is a brilliant character study of a complicated career gal in New York City. There is a great jittery soundtrack which immediately suggests the 70s paranoid thriller genre. She lives next door to a funeral home. Bree is irresistible; she supplies the permissive okay to her clients with her “Let it all hang out, baby; we are both mature adults here” spiel. The villain is wonderfully bent. He gets away with all his crimes, but can’t leave well enough alone. He jump starts the cold case by bringing in a private detective and begins dropping bread crumbs for him. Bree is the only clue to a missing (and now feared dead) business exec. She gets a seedy glimpse into her future when she helps the detective (Klute) track down a missing junkie /hooker. Klute is unafraid of her moods, unafraid of her anger, even though Bree keeps pushing him away he is always right there, in her face. She is completely baffled by this small town cop from the sticks. Fonda is given a couple of great acting scenes.
Four Days in September (1997) - Barreto
The film allows each and every character to be sympathetic in this kidnapping drama. Although a few of the characters carelessly self-incriminate themselves with their time in the spotlight. The ambassador is great with his semantic tap dancing. There is a horrid moment when the policeman justifies torture. He even admits the majority of his brutalized and broken victims are unsuspecting Poly Sci majors who learn the hard way that the state will do everything (up to and including mass murder) to keep power from falling legitimately into the hands of the people. There is a nice reminder that in a police state, all the old hens and malcontents will to remain at their assigned post as a sacred trust and flood the police snitch lines with tips on the people in their neighbourhood who appear odd, walk funny, do suspicious things (according to them) and they not above having people disappeared over old simmering grudges.
Mrs. Miniver (1942) - Wyler
This was made has a special invitation to the Yanks to please join World War 11. The British stiff upper lip is embodied by this one suburban family during the bombing campaign. The husband takes his Yacht for a spin over to Dunkirk and returns with it riddled with bullets. The son becomes an ace pilot. The entire male population of the town is hunting for a downed German bomber but the wife is the one that disarms and captures him. The poor sod’s arm hangs limp and useless at his side, he hasn’t eaten in four or five days, yet he still manages to uncork a great bug eyed, Hitlerian rant before being led away. Sunday service continues every week in a bombed out church. The morning after their house was bombed, they gather to survey the improvements: a splendid new panoramic view of the entire neighbourhood from the living room couch. It was at this point I imagined a comedy troupe was about to wander on screen and commandeer the film. “I’ve ‘ad worse, Gerry! Give it up!” The eponymous Mrs.Miniver is a prize winning rose: the secret ingredient? Horse manure; not unlike the propaganda in this film but this is devastatingly glorious propaganda.
Clara (2018) - Sherman
This is a low budget love fable masquerading as Science fiction. Our astrophysicistprofessor is on a downward trajectory. Ourcurmudgeon gets one smart ass question too many during his lecture and decides to go for the full body slam by proving logically that searching for the presence of extra-terrestrial life in the universe is a much a smarter bet then trying to find true romance here on earth. He’s called to the Dean’s office later that afternoon after a never ending parade of emotionally distraught and teary eyed students complaining he used big math to prove they were going to die alone and unloved. He is given the boot (who cares) but he gets his telescope time revoked (major problem) and now he needs a way back in.
A Pain in the Ass (1973) - Molinaro
This starts off a serious crime drama with a car bombing gone wrong; there is a quick settling of accounts where the careless bomber (the target is now in protective custody) is made redundant (bullet to the head) and a more competent man is given the contract. There is a nice hand held camera in certain scenes and the great stone face of Lino Ventura. The best thing about this film is the seamless transition; where the hitman remains in his gritty gangster film but a comedy slowly forms around him from until he is up to the neck (and I can pinpoint the exact moment when he goes under.) The hitman ends up in the countryside and needs to get back into town immediately for the kill shot. He simply steps in front of an oncoming car. The camera holds on the driver so I’m guessing this was a famous race car driver from the 60s, and they take off at a 120 mph. When he nervously reaches for the seat belt and buckles up, that is the moment when he concedes the defeat.
Hurry Sundown (1967) - Preminger
The film begins with an aerial shot of the wheelers and dealers already counting their lucre; the only thing that stands in the way of progress (in the year of our Lord 1946) are two plots at the edge of a (whites only) real estate development, and securing them from the share croppers is a mere formality. Resistance to change in the film is established with an ironic counterpoint; the new preacher man desegregates the highway to heaven and mixes the races during the Sunday sacrament, and an old white cracker goes ballistic over having to share his communion wafer with the coloreds. On the down side, the movie fails to establish and hold a realistic tone to the proceedings; Michael Caine and Jane Fonda both take a run at a southern drawl and fail; there is some bad looping (you can hear the redubs in certain scenes) and clocking in at 2:26 it’s one cool, lingering lemonade drink in the shade too many. On the upside, there is sly sexual innuendo and hilarious characterizations, like the old judge never goes anywhere without his rubber donut. This is a kind of a curiosity; but I liked this because of the duplicitous absurdity on display there.
Broken (2017) - Norris
Three (broken) families form an interactive triangle on a dead-end street in North London. The lead character’s name (Skunk) immediately suggested Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and immediately imposed that film’s perspective of a young girl’s point of view leaving childhood and entering the bewildering adult world. Her mom simply skipped town with another man. Her older brother delights in tormenting her about the sadistic hazing she is going to get when she enters high school at the end of summer. The first time director fills his scenes with business; there are delightful throwaway moments like tiny terror dancing on the stairs. This actually wants me to revisit TKAM simply to check out the age of Scout’s au pair.