Gideon58's Reviews

A Woman's Secret
Despite another terrific performance from the incomparable Gloria Grahame, 1949's A Woman's Secret is a convoluted and confusing melodrama that never really answers a lot of the questions it poses.

The film opens with a former singer named Marian Washburne (Maureen O'Hara) confessing to the attempted murder of a singer and Broadway star named Susan Caldwell (Grahame), even though a piano player and songwriter named Luke Jordan (Melvyn Douglas) doesn't believe for a minute that Marian committed this crime. The complicated love triangle between these three characters then unfolds in front of us in flashback as detectives and DA's try to figure out exactly what happened to Susan.

Herman J Manckiewicz' screenplay, based on a novel by Vicki Baum (Grand Hotel), confuses from the start as we learn that Marian and Luke actually discovered Susan and the development of her career becomes paramount one night after performing Marian collapses backstage and is mysteriously no longer able to sing. Luke and Marian carefully carve out a career for Susan which actually takes her to Paris and Algiers and eventually back to the states where she becomes a Broadway star, but no insight is ever provided as to why Marian would want Susan dead or confess to trying to kill her.

The story also aggravates because we know that the Luke Jordan character is key to what's going on here and the only time we get an exact look at the relationship between these three people is when certain portions of the story come from Luke Jordan. Incredibly, Jordan seems completely clueless to the fact that both of these women are in love with him, but the love triangle becomes less interesting as we just want to know how Susan and Marian ended up in a room with Susan dead on the floor. We also never really understand why it is so important to Marian that Susan have a successful career.

What I did understand is that eventually I didn't care and I just wanted to know what happened when that gunshot went off at the beginning of the movie and I have to admit when we are finally shown exactly what happened, it is a bit of a letdown. Nicholas Ray displays flashes of the director he would become and does get solid performances from O'Hara and Grahame, but the story is so confusing that we almost don't notice. Considering the cast and the director, a disappointment.

A Star is Born (1937)
With the smashing success of Bradley Cooper's re-thinking of this classic story earlier this year, I thought it was finally time for me to sit down and watch the 1937 version of A Star is Born, not just to invite comparison to the three remakes, but something inside of me was not going to rest until I had seen all four versions of this iconic Hollywood story.

For those who, incredibly, might not have seen any of the remakes, this is the story of a small town girl named Esther Blodgett who yearns for Hollywood stardom and gets a leg up from Norman Maine, a movie star whose career is on the decline due to his alcoholism. Norman does a screen test with Esther, whose name is changed to Vicki Lester, and they end up doing a movie together that makes Esther/Vicki the hottest ticket in Hollywood, but Norman's career continues a steady decline, which forces Norman deeper into the bottle.

The screenplay, which earned an Oscar for original story, might be slightly dated, but the story is so solid that other artists have been motivated to re-imagine the story, but it has never been re-imagined beyond recognition. The opening scenes of Esther being ridiculed by her family are a little silly and, wisely, have never really been re-produced in any of the other versions, but they help the viewer to understand Esther's ambitions and those initial scenes of her arrival in Hollywood struggling are difficult, but relatively brief. You will laugh when you see how much Esther pays to rent a room on a weekly basis.

Each version of this story has found its own way to craft what is happening between Esther and Norman, and though the methods utilized here might appear dated, some of them are still extremely effective. I love the scene of audiences members leaving the preview of THE ENCHANTED HOUR, the first film Esther and Norman make together and all the people are talking about is how wonderful Vicki was. We later see a billboard for the movie with Norman's name above the title being revamped with Vicki's name above the title. And that scene at the Oscars never gets old. Director William A. Wellman displays some style too...I love that shot of Norman in bed while Vicki is talking about giving up her career to take of him where we only see Norman's eyes...it's haunting and it is no surprise that George Cukor recreated it in the '54 version.

Janet Gaynor's wide-eyed exuberance as Esther/Vicki and Fredric March's stylish acting pyrotechnics as Norman Maine earned both actors Oscar nominations. March is particularly dazzling and just might be my favorite Norman Maine. Adolph Menjou was terrific as Oliver Niles, the head of the studio and Lionel Stander stole every scene he was in as Libby, the studio press agent. Younger folks who might remember Stander as Max on the TV series Hart to Hart might find him a real eye-opener here. I see now why this wonderful film was complimented with three remakes. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the flattery is definitely earned here.

Sleeper (1973)
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton team for the third time in a zany futuristic comedy from 1973 called Sleeper that, despite a couple of confusing detours during the final act, provides genuine belly laughs thanks to Woody's flawless ear for comic dialogue and some incredible set pieces.

The film opens in the year 2173 where Miles Monroe (Allen), a jazz clarinetist and health food store owner wakes up after being cryogenically frozen for 200 years after entering St. Vincent's Hospital in the village for a minor operation. Miles learns that he has been awakened in order to infiltrate the oppressive 2173 government in order to find out about something called the Aires Project. Miles apparently is the only one who can infiltrate because everyone in the future has been numbered and programmed and denied government access.

Allen co-wrote this wickedly funny satire with Marshall Brickman, with whom he also collaborated with on Manhattan and the Oscar-winning Annie Hall. Despite it being set 200 years in the future, the story is basically a different platform for Allen to publicize his well-known views on politics, religion, sex, relationships, and ecology. Only in the demented mind of Woody Allen would we actually find a futuristic society where vegetables are the size of trees and people have sex inside a machine.

The first two thirds of this movie are especially funny as we watch the Miles Monroe character try to adapt his 1973 sensibilities to 2173 society. I loved one of the opening scenes where he is asked to identify several historical figures from photographs and television clips. It was no surprise when he is told that they have figured out that in 1973 people who did something really terrible were punished by being made to watch Howard Cossell. The opening scenes where Miles has to be a robot are very amusing and once Miles and Luna (Keaton), the flighty 2173 socialite he takes as a hostage get separated and she joins a group of underground survivalists, the story gets a little convoluted leading to a finale that seemed like something out of a Three Stooges short subject, but it does lead to a satisfying finale.

The film is worth watching for Woody Allen's look at America in the year 2173, which utilizes some stunning art direction and outrageous set pieces that scene after scene, defy imagination but fit this crazy story like a glove. Of course, it goes without saying that Allen and Keaton are the well-oiled machine they always have been and they will get you through the confusing spots. It should also be noted that the jazzy music is provided by Woody and the band that he plays with at Michael's in New York every Oscar night.

Sandy Wexler
I wanted to see it before completing my current list; sadly I hate to report that Adam Sandler had a major misfire with a 2017 debacle called Sandy Wexler, an overblown comic character study that worked much better when Woody Allen called it Broadway Danny Rose.

Sandler plays the title character, a Hollywood talent manager who lives in the cabana room of a mansion owned by an Arab billionaire He has a few selected clients who are faithful to him like a bad standup comedian (Colin Quinn), an insecure ventriloquist (Kevin James) and an Evel Kneivel-like stunt performer (Nick Swardson), who seem to be in denial about the fact that their manager is a freaking moron. Sandy's career and personal life appear to be on the upswing when he meets a talented young singer named Courtney Clarke (Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson) who he meets at Six Flags where she is starring in a stage version of The Ugly Duckling.

Not sure where to start here, but I'd like to start with the film's intention. The idea that Sandler and his co-screenwriters have come up with is a good one, if not terribly original. I just wish they had decided to tell the story with more of a straight face. It seems that Sandler decided the only way to make this character appear pathetic was to infuse him with that goofy voice and annoying man/child persona that the actor has utilized in at least half dozen films. I was hoping when I saw what the premise of this film was that Sandler would be taking a serious look at the business of show business through a comic eye, but the eye he has chosen here is just silly and hard to swallow.

There are definite elements of characters like Danny Rose and even Jerry Maguire here, but they just don't work because those characters, though involved in comic situations, were created in a realistic vein, which can't be said for Sandy Wexler at all. I didn't buy all these people even knowing who Sandy was, let alone showing up for the twisty, contrived ending. I didn't buy Courtney's complete trust in Sandy or her inability to see what an idiot this guy was and I definitely didn't buy the lead characters as a romantic couple, which just came off as forced.

Sandler is at a point in his career where he is given the budget and freedom to do whatever he wants and that is clear here. Even director Steven Brill, who directed one of my favorite Sandler movies, Mr. Deeds, seemed to have virtually no control of what went on here. In addition to Sandler's regular rep company, the film features a plethora of cameos from Jon Lovitz, Conan O'Brien, Terry Crews, Dana Carvey, Tony Orlando, Vanilla Ice, Jason Priestley, Lisa Loeb, David Spade, Jane Seymour, Pauly Shore, Aaron Neville, Paul Rodriguez, Chris Rock, and Brian McKnight who really do nothing to help disguise what a big ol' waste of time and money this was. Even hardcore Sandler fans, like myself, might want to give this one a pass.

Creed 2
It seems to attempt the bring the Rocky saga full circle, but Creed 2 suffers from too many lapses into melodrama and trying to cover way too much territory.

This 2018 sequel to the 2015 hit finds Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) six matches since the first film and now the Heavyweight Champion. He has proposed to girlfriend Biance (Tessa Thompson) and they are expecting a baby. Adonis is then challenged to step into the ring with Viktor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the boxer who killed Adonis' father.

The lure of avenging his father's death is irresistible to Adonis, even to the point of ignoring the advice of trainer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to take the match. Rocky responds by refusing to train our hero, who finds Viktor a little more than he can handle. Though Viktor is the victor, he is disqualified for hitting Adonis when he was already down, but this defeat not only destroys Adonis physically, but beats all of the fighter's spirit out of him as well.

The primary problem with this film is that it suffers from "Sequel-itis"...that dreaded cinematic disease afflicted upon sequels to make them bigger and better and more of everything that was provided in the first film; unfortunately, they rarely succeed and this film is no exception. This film tries to give balance to a story that touches on the personal professional life of Adonis Creed, but the son and grandson of Rocky that he has lost contact with, the possibility that his daughter might have inherited a hearing problem, and even how the fight in 1985 destroyed Ivan Drago, his family, and his life.

Actually, I really didn't mind the look at the Dragos...it was a very effective nod to a 33 year old movie to actually address the consequences of Drago losing that match and how he lost everything because of it, including his wife (Brigitte Nielsen). The look at the Dragos revealed a connection to the present in that, just as I felt in the 1985 film, Viktor's involvement in revenging his father's loss all those years ago did not seem to be his idea and we get the feeling that his heart is not in what he's doing. The tensions in the Drago family rung so true and I have to say that the years have been very kind to Dolph Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen.

There were other story elements here that I found troubling as well. On one hand, I didn't like the fact that Rocky refused to train Adonis for the first fight and sat in that empty bar yelling at poor Adonis on the TV. On the other hand, I was also bothered that Adonis triumphs with Rocky in his corner. I was very troubled by the implication that Adonis only won the second fight because he had Rocky in his corner. Not sure if this was co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler's intention, but if it was, I didn't like it. Director Steven B. Caple should have kept a closer eye on his editors...there were several shots of the opponents landing shots in slow motion that were cut too quickly without revealing their actual impact.

On the positive side, the training sequences were first rate, especially the second one, though I do miss Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" as a background. Ludwig Goranson's music was overbearing and a little creepy. Jordan and Stallone created some powerful moments and Phylicia Rachad made the most of her screen time as Adonis' mother, I just wish the whole thing had been trimmed down and reigned in a bit.

Hanging Up
The 2000 comedy-drama Hanging Up is cloyingly sentimental and works very hard at being overly cute, but the film has a footnote in movie history as the cinematic swan song for the amazing Walter Matthau.

Matthau play Lou Pozell, a former Hollywood screenwriter who is developing Alzheimers and has three daughters: The eldest daughter Georgia (Diane Keaton) is the publisher of her own magazine; middle daughter Eve (Meg Ryan) is an event planner, and baby Maddy (Lisa Kudrow) is a soap opera actress. As Lou enters the hospital, the primary caregiving duties fall on Eve, who finds herself resenting her sisters lack of participation and questioning why she has become so concerned about a man who has been causing her pain for most of her life.

Director Diane Keaton and screenwriter Delia Ephron have the germ of a really good idea here, but the film ends up trying to tell two different stories and being unsure of which one it wants to tell. There are parts of the film that seem to be about the sisters' and their relationship with their father or the lack thereof and there are other parts of the movie that seem to be about the strained relationship and long buried resentments between these three sisters, but the story really seems to be about Eve's relationship with her father, but there's too much other stuff going on for the viewer to really notice this.

Keaton's direction is a little on the manic side and seems to concentrate on often inappropriate physical comedy and mawkish melodrama that never really registers the way it should. The laughs are few and mostly supplied by Matthau, though the only scene that absolutely rang true for me is when Lou unexpectedly disrupts his grandson's 5th birthday party. This scene was heartbreaking and if the rest of the movie had been on this level, this movie could have been something really special.

As expected, Matthau steals every scene he is in and the fact that this was his final film just gave his performance an added richness. Meg Ryan works very hard as Eve, but the performance eventually just becomes exhausting and director Keaton has to take some of the heat for that. Keaton's onscreen role is thankless but she is always worth watching and Kudow's Maddy is basically just an older version of Phoebe Buffay. Adam Arkin was terrific as Eve's husband and there was also a classy cameo by Cloris Leachman as the girls' mother but this one works a little too hard at being cute in telling a not very cute story.

Female on the Beach
Joan Crawford doing what she did best anchors a campy 1955 melodrama called Female on the Beach that provides more unintentional giggles than it does true melodrama but that didn't keep me from having a lot of fun watching.

Crawford's character, Lynn Markham is a wealthy widow who moves into a California beach house she inherited from her late husband and is surprised to find a slick, well-built gigolo named Drummond "Drummy" Hall (Jeff Chandler) and a real estate agent (Jan Sterling) both have keys to the house and are making themselves quite at home. Lynn is further distressed to learn that the former tenant at the house, an Ellouise Crandall (Judith Evalyn) died the night before she arrived and that Drummy might have had something to do with it.

Robert Hill's screenplay, which he adapted from his own play, is rich with some of the most overripe and immensely quotable dialogue that I've heard in years...I loved shortly after meeting Drummy, Lynn remarks, "You must go with the house...like the plumbing." Or when she tells him he's about as friendly as a suction pump...whatever that is. I found myself giggling a lot throughout what was supposed to be this terribly serious drama. There's a scene where Drummy starts to manhandle Lynn and she tries to escape via the stairs to the beach that had me on the floor.

Despite the camp quality to the screenplay and the dialogue, there is some pretty adult stuff going on here. This was probably one of the first examples of a professional gigolo seen in a major motion picture. I liked the way Drummy never makes any pretense about who he is and what he does and the relationship he has with Osbert and Queenie Sorensen (Cecil Kellaway, Natalie Schafer), the con artists who have him been using him to bilk wealthy widows on the each is one of the most entertaining aspects of the story.

If the truth be told, the best thing about this movie is the absolutely stunning wardrobe that Crawford is draped in for the proceedings. Costume designer Sheila O'Brien was definitely robbed of an Oscar for her work here. Crawford is fully invested in the kind of role she can play in her sleep and Jeff Chandler is a smoldering leading man. Kellaway, Schafer, and Sterling are also a lot of fun. The film is beautifully photgraphed and Lynn's beach house is gorgeous. The music is slightly overbearing but it didn't get in the way of the campy entertainment value provided here.

Gotti
Despite a flashy performance by John Travolta in the title role, the 2018 biopic Gotti is pretty rough going thanks to sluggish direction and a confusing screenplay.

The film is not just an up close look at the Telefon Don who would eventually be convicted and begin to serve five life sentences before succumbing to throat cancer, but it also looks at the relationship with his son, who wanted to be part of his father's life since he was a kid and eventually did, resulting in his own legal difficulties, which is the hook that the screenwriter has chosen to let this story unfold. As the film opens, we meet Gotti, already in jail and dying of cancer, meeting with his son, John A., who has been offered a plea bargain which could change his sentence from 20 years to 5 1/2 - 7 years and it's Gotti's outrage at this offer which motivates him to spill his story.

The rambling and convoluted screenplay by Leo Rossi (who also appears in the film) and Lem Dobbs introduces us to John as he is made a crew chief for the Gambino crime family and his eventual rise to the top of the organization. Unfortunately, once we get past Gotti's first hit in a quiet little bar, the story becomes virtually impossible to follow, trying to figure out who is working for who, what crime families are in league with Gotti, and which law enforcement officials he has in his pocket. One thing I did like here was being introduced to mob rules and regulations that were news to me, like the rules that "made" men must adhere to and a new phrase I had never heard in a movie before called "on the shelf." The way a guy who has been put on the shelf is treated was not pretty.

The story becomes a little easier to follow after Gotti is arrested because director Kevin Connolly begins to utilize archival news footage to aid in story comprehension, but by this point it's too little too late. The other thing this archival footage does is make it clear the millions of New Yorkers who Gotti had in his corner and worshiped him blindly, the most frightening aspect of which seemed to be the fact that most of these apostles appeared to be under the age of 25. Director Connolly does attempt a balanced and complete look at this charismatic mob boss but his pacing of the story makes a movie that clocks in under two hours seem more like four.

John Travolta completely loses himself in this very complex role, shedding any pretense of glamour and burying images of Tony Manero and Danny Zuko forever. There is effective support from Pruitt Taylor Vince, Stacy Keach and a star making turn from Spencer Rocco Lofranco as John's son, but I think this story just needed a little more experience in the director's chair.

Chris Rock: Bring the Pain
Chris Rock knocks it out of the park with his second HBO special entitled Chris Rock: Bring the Pain, which offers roll-on-the-floor laughs through a little something to offend everyone.

The 1996 special was filmed live from the Tacoma Theater in Washington DC, where Rock doesn't waste anytime trying to offend his audience by immediately going after their hometown Mayor at the time, Marian Barry, inquiring how the guy could get caught smoking crack and still get re-elected. These remarks actually produced selected boos from the audience but, as expected, Chris really doesn't care and just uses it as a platform to present his views on the virtues of drugs and why they should be legalized.

The fun thing about watching Rock work is the way he segues from one topic to the next and then surprises when he actually goes back to the original topic for awhile. This requires a razor quick mind that stays focused on the prize, which in this case, is getting laughs that require complete attention from his audience. Doing standup that requires complete attention relies on a couple of things. One, is that the comic can't always wait for laughs and two, that he doesn't spend too much time laughing at himself, and Rock accomplishes both of these things beautifully.

As I listened to Rock travailing about the excess food in America and the ridiculous concepts of a diet without red meat or pork, I realized something that I have only said about one other comic. I said it about the legendary George Carlin and I have to say it about Chris Rock too...everything that Chris says is absolutely correct.

Chris' views on the OJ verdict had me on the floor as did he views about Colin Powell running for President, primarily they weren't really what I was expecting. And unlike a lot of black comics, Chris is not always in the corner of his people. One of the highlights of this concert was when Chris expounded on the difference between blacks and n*****s, which had me crying I was laughing so hard. This was Chris at his prime, and it's such an interesting time capsule watching him talk about certain things that he was certain would never happen. I was particularly amused by Chris' definitive opinion that we would never have a black President. A 20 year old comedy concert that still had me rolling on the floor.

Sleepless
Sleepless is an over-the-top, logic defying crime adventure that stars off promisingly but eventually collapses from way too many plot holes you can drive a truck through and nonsensical character motivations

Vincent Downs (Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) and Sean Cass (TI) are Las Vegas vice cops who steal a large shipment of cocaine from a scummy casino owner named Stanley Rubino (Dermot Mulroney) and when the case hits their precinct they offer to investigate in order to cover up their involvement. It's revealed that the cocaine actually belongs to a mob boss named Novak (Scoot McNairy) and when Novak threatens Rubino counters by kidnapping Downs' son. This story gets complicated further by a pair of Internal Affairs officers (Michelle Monaghan, David Harbour) who suspect Downs is dirty and put Downs and his son in even more danger.

This thing actually starts off pretty promisingly. Stories about dirty cops have been around for a long time and some of them, like The Departed and LA Confidential were Oscar winning masterpieces, but this one slips way off the track due to a convoluted screenplay by Andrea Berloff that changes the primary players motivations in the story on a scene by scene basis. Every time we think we've got it figured out who the good cops are and who the dirty ones are, there's another change in the program that we don't see coming and the constant reveals of who is who get to be quite exhausting. Novak is really the only character who we are introduced to who remains the same character from the beginning to the end of the story.

There's just a whole bunch of stuff that happens here that I just didn't get. When Downs plans to deliver the cocaine to get his son back, he doesn't take all of it, he takes a few bricks and stashes the rest of it in a restroom ceiling until he gets his son back. Did he really think that was going to fly? When Monaghan's character finds the cocaine, instead of taking it in as evidence, she stashes it in another part of the casino...why? And when Novak finds out his cocaine is missing, he threatens to kill Rubino? Why's he's going to kill the only guy who has a connection to retrieving the cocaine?

Director Baran bo Odar reveals skill at mounting viable action sequences but when they're supporting a story as nonsensical as this one, they're just meaningless. Foxx and Monaghan work very hard at keeping this silly story watchable and McNairy is terrific as Novak, but Mulroney is miscast. And as ridiculous as this story is, I couldn't believe the end of the movie actually sets up a sequel...seriously?

Wonder Boys
With Curtis Hanson in the director's chair and the always reliable Michael Douglas in front of the camera, a quirky and often brilliant comedy-drama called Wonder Boys becomes appointment viewing for the discriminating filmgoer.

This 2000 character study focuses on one Grady Tripp (Douglas), a pot-smoking college professor and writer who seems to be suffering from writer's block. As this chapter in Grady's life is laid before us, Grady's third wife has just left him, he finds himself drawn to a particularly gifted student named James Leer (Tobey Maguire) whose emotional luggage manifests itself in James shooting the chancellor's husband dog and stealing a valuable piece of movie memorabilia from his house. Grady also has a pretty student (Katie Holmes) renting a room from him who clearly has a crush on him, despite the fact that Grady is having an affair with the chancellor (Frances McDormand) and has gotten her pregnant.

Steve Kloves' screenplay, based on a novel by Michael Chabon, has a real Joel and Ethan Cohen quality to it, rich with a lot of quirky but likable characters doing not very nice things and caught in the middle of some very prickly situations that they could get out of quite easily, but often just choose not to. Everything that is going on in Grady Tripp's life seems to be contributing to his writer's block and his desire to ignore everything that isn't right in his life right now.

Even the writer's block that Tripp is suffering from is not what we usually think of as writer's block. Instead of being unable to write anything, poor Grady is unable to stop writing, made only worse by the fact that he really doesn't even know what he's writing. The original idea for a 250-300 page is now over 2600 pages and continues to be churned out. There's a point in the film where Grady explains to us that he has to block out everything that's going on in his life and work on his book and he sits down and starts typing instantly without even thinking about what he's typing. There's a slightly confusing connection between some of the characters in Grady and the nonsensical epic he can't shape into a viable piece of literature, while people keep reminding him how brilliant his last book was.

Director Hanson looks at Grady Tripp with such a twisted directorial eye that we can't help love this guy and feel for everything he's going through. Hanson's vision of the character seems to find itself in Tripp's glasses, which come on and off his nose a LOT during the running time.

Michael Douglas offers a dazzling, award-calibre performance in the starring role that endears the character to us and he gets terrific support from Maguire, a real opener as the ethereal James Leer, Robert Downey Jr. as Tripp's publisher who comes to the canvas to pressure Tripp but becomes completely enamored of James instead, and especially McDormand as the married chancellor who loves loving Tripp but is being driven quietly insane with his ambivalence regarding their relationship. The film features terrific editing and an evocative song score that both serve this offbeat story perfectly.

Menace II Society
After middling success with films like Dead Presidents and From Hell, a pair of rookie filmmaking brothers named Albert and Allen Hughes hit a real bullseye with a blistering and bloody epic called Menace II Society, an up close examination of life for young African American males in contemporary Watts that is a little larger than life, but paints a pretty accurate picture.

After a brief introduction to the racial tension that fueled the Watts riots of 1965, the story moves to contemporary Watts looking at life in this gritty urban neighborhood through the eyes of a young man named Caine. Caine is, at his core, a good guy who is hanging with all the wrong people and getting in a lot of trouble but staying on the cusp of serious trouble until he becomes involved in a robbery at a liquor store which resulted in the death of two people. Caine can't convince his running partner O-Dog to forget about the security tape that shows what happened. But things get really sticky when O-Dog starts showing the tape to his friends in the name of entertainment.

On the other side, Caine finds himself drawn to Ronnie, the single mom girlfriend of another friend of Caine's who is now incarcerated. He is doing best to keep an eye on the girl and her son and trying to take care of them while resisting the mixed signals he's getting from Ronnie regarding her feelings for him and regarding him changing his life.

The Hughes Brothers have presented a somewhat cliched story here that is definitely based on the very real existence of a lot of young African American males in this country. The image presented here initially attempts to evoke sympathy by showing us that Caine was born into this life. We meet Caine's parents...his father is a drug dealer who murders someone right in front of young Caine and his mother is a heroine addict. The message that this kind of life was in Caine's genes was kind of hard to swallow, since he was eventually raised by very religious grandparents. We then watch Caine and O-Dog, drinking, smoking pot, selling drugs, stealing cars, and then when his grandparents have had enough, he starts crying like a little girl about being kicked out? The sad thing is that as ridiculous as Caine's behavior is, there's nothing presented here that is out of the realm of reality. It might be slightly exaggerated, but very slight.

The Hughes Brothers not only showing an understanding of the plight of today's African American male, but some real style as filmmakers. I loved the scene of Caine being questioned by a police detective with the camera just circling around them, it made the room they were in appear smaller and smaller with each circle of the camera. The exquisite slow motion photography employed while Caine was cooking cocaine also made an impression.

Tyrin Turner's performance as Caine is a little uneven but his supporting cast, including Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Clifton Powell, Glenn Plummer, and Samuel L. Jackson (impressive as Caine's dad) is so good you hardly notice it. The Hughes Brothers have crafted a smoking indictment on street life that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

Educating Rita
A pair of dazzling lead performances that both earned Oscar nominations anchor 1983's Educating Rita, a sparkling comedy that is a very different kind of love story...sort of.

Rita is a 27 year old married hairdresser who wants to complete her basic education so she enrolls in an evening literature course taught by Dr. Frank Bryant, an alcoholic college professor who is married to another faculty member who is cheating on him. Rita has been keeping her husband at arm's length who wants her barefoot and pregnant and when he finds out that she's been on birth control, he dumps her.

Rita turns out to be an educational sponge, drinking in everything that Dr. Frank has to offer, but profound changes that occur within her with her new found education make it difficult for her to tolerate the kind of person Frank is behind his intellect and teaching skill...an often sloppy drunk who can't commit to anything in his life but that bottle.

Willy Russell's screenplay displays flashes of brilliance, with its Pygmalion influence that doesn't really morph into the kind of relationship that developed with Henry Higgins and Eliza Dolittle. Even though they are both in denial about it, Higgins and Eliza do fall in love with each other and that's what is expected as this story unfolds, but that doesn't happen at all. Rita is looking to further her education and never implies she wants anything else from Frank. The only thing she requests from Frank is that he never laugh at her. Frank is initially amused by Rita, respects her wishes, treats her with the respect she's not getting from her husband, and requests that she not bother him about his drinking. It's the most romantic platonic relationship I've seen since Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in The King and I.

There are some minor problems with plot points and characterizations that kept this film from being what it could be. Every time the story shifted to Rita and her life away from Frank, the film came to a screeching halt and I didn't like the way Rita started to turn away from Frank when the daytime students began socializing with her. I also couldn't believe that Frank's drunken escapades didn't get him fired.

But this film works and it works because of the brilliant performances by the stars. Caine, being directed by Lewis Gilbert, who directed him to his first Oscar nominated performance in Alfie, got him another one here...a powerful and heartbreaking performance that grips the viewer and never escapes realism. The secret of playing a great drunk scene is playing it like you're pretending to be sober and Caine does this beautifully in his first few scenes, way more convincing than his blind staggering later on in the film. Julie Walters, practically unknown at the time, is a brassy and funny Rita, the educational sponge with the cockney accent who longs to be taken more seriously. I love the scene where she is trying to describe something to Frank and carefully picks the word "encapsulated" and realizes that she chose the perfect word to express what she was feeling. Other than a pretentious music score, production values are top-notch, but it is the work of Caine and Walters that keep this one buzzing.

I Am Heath Ledger
The late Heath Ledger was a movie star whose talent, passion, and energy could not be contained and were sometimes a little overwhelming for the star himself, which is the underlying theme of the 2017 documentary I Am Heath Ledger, which allows us to look at the enigmatic star through himself as well as others who thought they knew him.

I love the way this documentary opens, talking to a musician and very good friend of Ledger's named Ben Harper, who had trouble gathering the words to explain to us that this shouldn't be going on, that we shouldn't be talking about Heath Ledger because he's gone. I know exactly how he feels because I remember when I first heard about his death, I was certain it was a mistake or some kind of sick hoax. This guy was on the cusp of being the biggest movie star on the planet when he was taken from us
In addition to Harper, the documentary features commentary from Heath's parents, his three sisters, actress Naomi Watts, director Ang Lee, a dialect coach named Gerry Grennell, actor Djimon Hounshou and childhood best friend Trevor Di Carlo. Ledger's ascent to stardom is meticulously documented through these interviews and each interview is capped off with an audio commentary from Ledger himself about whatever has just been documented onscreen for us.

We learn how after receiving the script for 10 Things I hate About You that the only role in the film that interested him was the role that he got, Patrick Verona. We are treated to rehearsal footage for a large dance sequence from A Knight's Tale, which actually piqued my curiosity about seeing the film. It was also revealed how terrified Ledger became when he got his first glimpse of the poster for A Knight's Tale because as much as Heath wanted stardom, once he attained it, he didn't want it anymore.

Despite this, he still accepted a role that a lot of actors turned down out of danger of destroying their careers...the role of Ennis Delmar in Brokeback Mountain, which instead of destroying Heath's career, sent him into the stratosphere. I loved his description of Ennis Delmar's voice as a "clenched fist". Of course, this is also where we learn how his romance with co-star Michelle Williams and the birth of their daughter Matilda changed a lot of Ledger's priorities. And the work he went into creating the performance that would win him a posthumous Oscar, the Joker in The Dark Knight is documented by DiCarlo and Ledger himself.

:Ledger is also revealed here as having a born director's eye, constantly fascinated with the camera and the magic it can create. Clips from two music videos that he directed are showcased here which indicate a meticulous directorial eye and endless imagination. This documentary is a loving homage to a once-in-a-lifetime artist.

I've watched that documentary a year ago, I honestly though they could do it better, it ended and there was something missing. What I fond very interesting was the camera recordings Heath made about himself, his method to become a better actor, those recordings are brilliant, they could probably do a movie just about them. OK he died, but dying after THAT last performance just brought more mysticism to the life of a mystic man. He couldn't have died better, that's my opinion, because he conquered what I believe is every man final goal, remembrance.

My Sister Eileen (1955)
The story has been told in many forms, but one of the lesser-known but still entertaining renditions came with Columbia's 1955 musical My Sister Eileen, which is a musical remake of a 1942 film that with a better score and some different casting could have been something really terrific, like the Broadway musical that would later be based on the same material.

This is the story of the Sherwood sisters, who have just arrived in Greenwich Village fresh off a bus from Ohio. Ruth (Betty Garrett) is the older, cynical, wisecracking sister who wants to be a writer who feels like she lives in the shadow of her pretty baby sister, Eileen (Janet Leigh), who has set her sights on becoming an actress. On their first day of pavement pounding, Ruth meets a suave publisher (Jack Lemmon) who thinks most of Ruth's work is drivel except for the story she wrote about Eileen. Instantly attracted to the guy, Ruth tries to convince the guy that she and Eileen are one and the same.

The title character finds herself being pursued by a sweet and shy soda jerk named Frank Lippincott (Bob Fosse) and a slick talking reporter named Chick Clark (Tommy Rall) who both try to assist Eileen in getting her show business career started as a way of getting things started. The girls also have to deal with a slightly greasy landlord (Kurt Kaznar) and an unemployed football hero (Dick York).

Director Richard Quine actually collaborated on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, which is based on a play that is based on a book by Ruth McKinney, the real life inspiration for Ruth Sherwood. The story originally came to screen in 1942 with Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair playing Ruth and Eileen, respectively. The play become a musical in 1953 with Russell and Edie Adams in the starring roles. For some reason, Columbia chose to re-think this story and employ a completely different but inferior score.

There's some odd casting choices here...Jack Lemmon's role as the slightly smarmy publisher seemed tailor-written for Dean Martin, I could practically hear his voice coming out of Lemmon's mouth during his big solo, "It's Bigger Than You and Me" Bob Fosse (who also choreographed the film) and Rall are terrific dancers, as a matter of fact they perform a challenge dance that is the film's highlight, but their performances are a little soft and as cute as Janet Leigh is, there had be someone more musically inclined who could have made this role sparkle the way it should have.

The songs by Jule Styne and Leo Robin are unremarkable and vastly inferior to the songs in the '53 musical. The score includes "As soon as they Look at Eileen", "I'm Great", "There's Nothin Like Love", and a dance number called "Give me a Band and My Baby" featuring Garrett, Fosse, Rall, and Leigh and some clever choreography by Fosse that hints at the genius he would later become creating dance on film.

Garrett is a lot of fun as Ruth though and manages to create a semblance of chemistry with the clearly miscast Lemmon, but Leigh makes a rather bland Eileen, though she does look breathtaking. Richard Quine's zingy direction does keep things moving nicely, but the score and some of the casting really hurt this one.

Nick Nolte: No Exit
The fascinating life and career of Nick Nolte is uniquely and brilliantly documented in a fabulous documentary from 2008 called Nick Nolte: No Exit which closely examines this loose cannon of an actor in a way that I have never seen before in a celebrity documentary that found this reviewer riveted from opening to closing credits.

Finding something different to bring to a celebrity documentary is not an easy feat but director Tom Thurman has happened on a most unique way of approaching this enigmatic subject. The documentary is mounted in the form of an interview with Nolte, but Nolte is playing the role of the reporter as well as himself. They appear to be skyping each other as the reporter Nolte is seated in front of a computer and is posing questions to actor Nolte who apparently is supposed to be in a different location. Actor Nolte is also seated in front of a computer but while he's talking pictures from his past and screenshots from his movies apear on his screen in tandem with the questions he's being asked. The reporter Nolte is dressed in a cream colored suit and a matching fedora. The actor Nolte is dressed in what appears to be blue-striped flannel pajamas.

This was such a cool concept for this kind of documentary because it provided just about all the information you think you would have liked to have known about the actor, but it allows Nolte artistic control in terms of what is being talked about, but not in the way you think...there are a lot of things here that are addressed that are either succinctly explained, like the infamous mug shot, or the actor tells us straight out that he doesn't want to talk about it...like his arrest for selling counterfeit government documents, which was written into the backstory of his character in Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

Despite this unique approach in getting the story, we also get the expected commentary from people who have worked with the actor like Ben Stiller, Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, Barbara Hershey, James Gammon, Roseanna Arquette, directors Paul Mazursky and Alan Rudolph, writer FX Feeney and co-founder of Orion Pictures, Mike Medavoy. There is a refreshing underlying theme to their commentary that helped to give this look at the actor validity, I loved the answer supplied by each commentator when each was asked what they thought the inside of Nolte's brain looked like.

We get a nicely selected glance at the actor's career, mostly through Nolte's eyes and some screenshots, though no actual film clips were employed. I was surprised to learn that most of 48 HRS was improvised, that it took a year of pressure from Peter Yates for him to do The Deep and that the only film he wanted to do the second he read the script was Down and Out in Beverly Hills. The stories Paul Mazursky shared about the making of that movie had me on the floor.

I loved some of the photos of his pre-stardom life. His theater work is briefly touched on and while he's talking about it, there is a still that comes onscreen that looks like him playing Starbiuck in a production of The Rainmaker. Also really enjoyed learning about the relationship he had with Marlon Brando, how uncomfortable he is with comparisons to the acting legend, and that Q & A was Brando's favorite film. This documentary was absolutely amazing and made me want to sit down and watch every movie Nick Nolte ever made (starting with the ones I haven't seen of course).

Rough Night
2017's Rough Night is an implausible and slightly raunchy comic adventure that borrows inspiration from several films of the past, but blends them into a somewhat original concoction that surprisingly had me laughing for the majority of the running time.

Scarlett Johansson plays Jess, a senatorial candidate who reconnects with three of her college roommates and a skyping friend from Australia for her bachelorette party weekend in Miami, which goes terribly wrong when the girls accidentally kill a male stripper.

Director and co-screenwriter Lucia Aniello is clearly acquainted with the 1998 sleeper Very Bad Things which seems to be the primary inspiration for this screwball adventure, but he has added some extra levels to the story that give what we're watching an air of originality. I liked that when Jess' fiancee, Peter, sensed something was wrong that he dropped everything to get to Miami, even if his journey hit a couple of bumps. I also loved the subplot involving the instant animosity between Jess' college BFF Alice and her new BFF Pippa from Australia. I was very pleased by another plot twist that I suspected instantly but it nagged at me until I learned at the end of second act that I was correct...doesn't happen often and it felt really good.

The film starts off pretty conventionally with the expected raunchy humor that you would suspect from the film's premise, but the death of the stripper takes it to a completely different place and the final act provides of a couple of contrived conveniences that keep our heroines safe, but as a filmgoer we forgive because the story has made us really like these girls and we really don't want to see them get in the serious trouble an accidental death could produce for them.

The film is beautifully photographed and a shout out should also go to film editor Craig Alpert as well. I have mentioned in previous reviews that I don't think Scarlett Johansson is very funny and this opinion has not changed but she works hard to make this character likable (plus her haircut is adorable) and she gets solid support from Jillian Bell as the perpetually horny Alice and the fabulous Kate McKinnon as Pippa. I also liked Paul W. Downs as Peter and there is a very cute cameo from Demi Moore and Ty Burrell as the married swingers who love next door. I went into this one expecting to hate it, but I can't lie, this movie made me laugh.

Fifth Avenue Girl
Ginger Rogers offers another sparkling and smart performance that anchors a 1939 comedy called Fifth Avenue Girl that touches on a lot of still relevant topics like ageism, capitalism, the plight of the homeless, and the validity of psychoanalysis and may have influenced some future comedy on film as well.

This is the story of Timothy Borden (Walter Connolly), a wealthy industrialist who is the owner of a large corporation called Amalgamated Pump, who receives a birthday present from his secretary that gets him thinking about how little he come to care about his business and how he feels unloved and neglected by his wife, Martha (Veree Teasdale) and his two children. Walter walks out of the office with his birthday present and takes a walk to Central Park where he meets Mary (Rogers), an unemployed girl who is about to get evicted from her apartment. Walter takes her out for a fancy dinner where he buys champagne for everyone in the restaurant. The next morning, Mary has spent the night at Walter's mansion and Walter and his butler have both awakened with black eyes after Walter's drunken return home that he doesn't remember. Walter feels so invigorated that he asks Mary to move into the mansion with him, where the girl has a profound effect on everyone in the household.

Allan Scott, who wrote three of the musicals Rogers did with Fred Astaire, provides a witty and sophisticated screenplay that probably raised a few eyebrows during the golden year of movies. The idea of this millionaire taking in an unemployed girl off the streets seems to be pretty bold for the 30's and I'm guessing that if this film were to be made today, the Mary character would be homeless, like Jerry in Down and Out In Beverly Hills, one of several films that this one brought to mind. Watching the way Ginger's Mary manipulated all of Walter's family without really trying to do it was reminiscent of Nick Nolte's manipulation of Richard Dreyfuss' household in 1985.

The story also works because of the relationship between the characters of Walter Borden and Mary Grey. It's a lot of fun watching the evolution of this relationship, from their first meeting in the park where Walter tries to grasp the concept of unemployment to Mary's final realization that she cannot be a pawn in the game that Walter ends up playing trying to get his family back. Watching Mary's effect on Walter's children reminded me a lot of Sheridan Whiteside's machinations a couple of years later in The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Rogers, Connolly, and Teasdale offer warm and effervescent performance at the center of this story that keep the viewer engaged. The supporting cast is solid, including Franklin Pangborn's befuddled butler and an early appearance from future scene-stealer Louis Calhern as a psychiatrist. For a comedy made way back in 1939, this one still provides major chuckles. Thanks for the recommendation Citizen.

@Gideon58 you've been reviewing a lot of movies lately, are you off from work for Christmas break? I've been working around the clock so haven't have time to read most of your reviews, but I will! as soon as the new year comes around.