Gideon58's Reviews

LaRoy, Texas
Fans of the Cohen Brothers will have a head start with 2023's LaRoy, Texas, an intricate and loopy black comedy that requires complete attention, providing rewards that I will try not to reveal through spoilers.

Ray is the milquetoast co-owner of a hardware store with his older brother, Junior. Ray meets a wanna be private detective named Skip who provides proof to Ray that his wife, a shrewish former beauty queen named Stacy-Lynn, is having an affair. Instead of confronting her about it, Ray is so devastated by the news that he decides he's going to commit suicide. He's sitting in a parking lot about to put the gun to his temple when a guy jumps into the passenger side of his car, throws a pile of cash at him and an address and asks him if he can still kill someone by tomorrow because it's time sensitive. Ray's about to explain that he's not a hitman until the guy implies that he's a wimp and Ray says he'll take care of it.

To reveal anymore of what happens would be wrong, because this is one of those movies that morphs into a giant jigsaw puzzle that doesn't exactly put itself together at lightening speed but is peppered with such interesting and pathetic, three dimensional characters that the viewer can't help but empathize with a couple of them, especially this poor schlub Ray, whose pain about learning of his wife's infidelity is palatable. It's obvious from the second that he learns the truth that he would have been perfectly happy living the rest of his life without knowing about it. Ray's pain is compounded when we get to know Stacy-Lynn, who is a tramp so not worthy of his love.

Of course, there's another side of the story because not long after Ray agrees to do this, the real hitman shows up, looking for his payday and his pursuant of Ray is relentlessly unapologetic and in the center of it all, we have this amateur detective in complete denial about his amateur status, most likely a police academy reject because it is established early on that the local police like messing with him. They are observed having his car impounded and vandalized, making the man look like an idiot. We begin to empathize with him as much as we do with Ray. And the pleasant surprise of this film, is that we do see change in these guys in terms of self esteem, even if everything doesn't end up wrapped in a perfect bow.

Director and screenwriter Shane Atkinson is relatively inexperienced but he shows some real promise here as a filmmaker. John Margaro, who was so good last year in the Oscar-nominated Past Lives gives a star making performance as Ray as does the always watchable Steve Zahn as the fake private eye, Megan Stevenson as the pathetic Stacy-Lynn and Dylan Baker who channels Steve Buscemi in his chilling interpretation of a hitman. It sags a little in the middle, but there's more good here than bad.

I Can Get it For You Wholesale
An effervescent performance by Susan Hayward in the starring role makes a slightly predictable, but still compelling little melodrama called I Can Get it For You Wholesale worth a look.

The 1951 film features Hayward as Harriet Boyd, a model at a large Manhattan fashion house, though her real passion is to be a fashion designer. She has even submitted her designs as the work of a male designer to get them seen. The opportunity to start her business with her own designs credited to her comes up when a salesman (Dan Dailey) and a dressmaker (Sam Jaffe) agree to go into business together. Things begin to go off the rails when a wealthy department store owner (George Sanders) is entranced by Harriet and agrees to sponsor her fashion empire, but has no interest in her partners.

Based on a novel by Jerome Weidman, this is the story of a woman trying to compete in man's world, not an uncommon thing in the 1950's, even though the setting is the world of women's fashion. Even more important, this film is focused around a working woman, something you didn't see too much of during the 1950's. This was also a woman who had no problem with stepping over a few people to get what she wanted and then is observed selling herself to get what she wanted, though she doesn't see it. Nor does she seem to see that she is in love with her salesman/partner.

Director Michael Gordon (Pillow Talk)) keeps things moving at a nice pace and had a strong cast to work with, Having already earned two Best Actress nominations, Hayward commands the screen here in a tailor-made role for the bold screen presence she has always been. Love the scene near the beginning of the film where she is trying to get money out of her sister and fakes a phone call pretending that the funding for her project has fallen through. She also manages to create chemistry with both Dailey and Sanders.

I've always felt Dailey was one of the most underrated actors from the era and proves that he can command the screen without his tap shoes. Sanders, fresh off his Oscar win for All About Eve is effective in a similar role, though this guy isn't quite as manipulative as Addison DeWitt. Jaffe, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Asphalt Jungle, but lost the award to Sanders, is lovely as the dressmaker. A Hollywood veteran that I've seen on television for years named Marvin Kaplan has a major role here and eternal classic movie grumpy old man Charles Lane can be glimpsed here as well. The movie was actually turned into a Broadway musical in 1962 that was the Broadway debut of a young singer named Barbra Streisand playing a secretary named Miss Marmelstein.

Dying of the Light
Another deliciously unhinged performance from Nicolas Cage makes a 2014 action thriller called Dying of the Light worth a look.

Paul Schrader, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Taxi Driver wrote and directed this intense if improbable drama which features Cage playing Evan Lake, a semi-retired CIA agent who has contracted a specialized strain of Alzheimers that doesn't deter him when he receives intel regarding the location of a terrorist who tortured him 22 years ago. And because he is dying too, the CIA won't assist Lake in tracking the man down, but a disgraced junior agent, played by the late Anton Yelchin, does offer assistance and they are both off to Bucharest to find the guy.

Schrader surprises with a story that springs from a much larger canvas than we are expected from him. Schrader usually concentrates on more intimate yet equally intense character studies like Travis Bickle or Nick Nolte's tortured protagonist in Affliction but the straight 007 route is something new for Schrader, not to mention there are logistical and timeline inconsistencies here that make this whole thing a little hard to. As the film opens, we see Cage being tortured with no attempt to make him look younger, but we're supposed to believe that 22 years pass as he is now observed struggling with Alzheimers and lecturing future agents about how America is so screwed up since 9/11, not to mention that his superiors are trying to force him to retire. So we're supposed to accept Nicolas playing a character who has to be in his late 60's . at the least, flying to another country with little back up and no plan to get even with a terrorist.

It was also hard to believe that, even if they didn't want Lake to do this, once they learned what he was planning, that they would have offered some sort of assistance, but once Lake is off to Bucharest, the CIA is not heard from for the rest of the film. They weren't even concerned about the younger agent who agreed to help Lake. It was very troubling that the CIA showed no concern for what these guys were doing, even though we hear Lake being told early on in the film that "We take care of our down".

Schrader was provided a big budget for this and he utilizes it effectively, but the absurdities of the story just made it all kind of difficult to invest in. Cage does offer a bombastic performance in the starring role that demands attention (though , if the truth be told, even back in 2014, Cage was getting a little long in the tooth for action heroes like this one) and he gets surprisingly solid support from Yelchin, who again reminds us of what a loss to the industry his death was.

Monkey Man
Dev Patel, star of 2008 Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire and Best Supporting Actor nominee for 2016's Lion goes over the top as the star, director, and co-screenwriter of 2024's Monkey Man, a long and rambling vigilante actioner that suffers from an overstuffed screenplay, ruining all of it's good intentions. It should be mentioned that this review is coming from someone who watched 30 minutes of Slumdog Millionaire and turned it off.

Patel plays Kid, a lonely and angry young Indian male living a life of anonymity working in an underground fight club wearing a monkey's mask who finds a trail to revenge on the man who murdered his mother, as well as other poor and defenseless, unable to exact their own revenge.

The screenplay starts off logically enough introducing us to Kid and his mother and their very special relationship, right after watching him get his ass kicked in the ring. But once he is given a shove in the right direction regarding his mother's killers, through an elaborate nightclub of drugs and prostitution, the movie gets more and more confusing as he has to murder his way through hundreds of people trying to stop him and a couple of people claiming help, but offering him a lot of useless guidance through Kung Fu type advice that finds Kid back in the ring. And the fact that the story is told of out of sequence doesn't help either.

This is Patel's third project as star, writer, and director and though I haven't seen the other two films he wrote and directed, it's obvious that the guy still needs a little seasoning as in what seems to be his journey to become the new Clint Eastwood. He definitely knows what an action film looks like, employing first rate camera work that often found this reviewer dizzy and some absolutely stomach churning violence, but he almost lost me with the pretentious and underwritten story that found this reviewer stifling yawns.

Patel made the most of his $10,000,000 budget, but it's pretty well utilized and will probably make back its budget. Patel's work and passion for the project are evident in every frame, but it didn't do much for me. I did watch the whole thing though, something I never did with Slumdog Millionaire so I guess that means something.

Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway
1985 was a banner year for EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg. She not only made her film debut in The Color Purple, that earned her an Oscar nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, but she also won a Tony Award for Whoopi Goldberg: Direct for Broadway, a one woman show which displays the true genius of Whoopi as she plays four very different characters.

This is an HBO recording of the Broadway show that Goldberg opened at the Lyceum Theater on October 10, 1984 and did 156 performances, closing in March of 1985. This film version shows Whoopi arriving at the theater and then going backstage to a CGI dressing room where she greets the four characters she is about to perform, asking if they are ready for the show.

As the show opens, we are introduced to a drug addict who ends up on a plane that takes him to Anne Frank's house; a 13 year beach bunny who discovers she's pregnant; a Jamaican nursing home aid, and a 7 year old black girl who wears a shirt on her head because she wants blonde hair,

Goldberg displays such artistry here because as characters that she created, she has complete control over the evening, something I don't think Goldberg ever had for the rest of her career. Loved when the drug addict came onstage and didn't like the greeting he got from the audience, Whoopi just walks offstage and starts the show over again. The little girl with the shirt on her hair is the only character who actually interacts with audience members. Adult language is very controlled but adult subject matter is not. Goldberg offers no kind of introductions to the characters, as one character leaves the stage, the stage goes back and comes back seconds later and a new character is onstage with absolutely no warning.

This is a brilliant and challenging evening of comedy that mesmerizes from curtain to curtain and one of my great regrets in life is that I didn't get to see it in person. Whoopi is a revelation here and, though it's an often abused phrase, she has, literally, never been better. She has never been better because Whoopi had complete artistic control over what she was doing here. Thomas Schlamme is billed as director, but basically he just points the camera where Whoopi tells him to. Think about everything you've seen Whoopi do over the years, and I am including Ghost, Sister Act, Soapdish or any other vehicle where Whoopi made you laugh, those laughs pale next to the ones provided here, because these laughs come from Whoopi's very singular, very unique voice, that was silenced forever when this show closed on Broadway.

Dream Scenario
An Oscar-worthy performance by Nicolas Cage is at the center of a bizarre little 2023 film called Dream Scenario that rivets the viewer to the screen without providing a shred of logic or reality to what we're watching.

Cage plays Paul Matthews, a slightly nerdy, tenured college professor who is thinking about writing a book and is more than content with the state of anonymity that is his life. Starting with his elder daughter and then expanding all over the small town where he lives, people he knows and perfect strangers start having dreams that Paul appears in for no reason, which finds Paul becoming a media sensation, but then the dreams change drastically and people are now terrified of him and just want him to vanish.

Director and screenwriter Kristoffer Borgli has constructed a tale that, on the surface, comes off as an extended episode of The Twilight Zone, but has so many moving parts for which the viewer is provided no explanation. When people initially start having dreams, Paul is observed just walking through bizarre situations but not becoming involved in the dream at all, then one woman has a sexual dream about him and another has a dream where he's strangling her? The change of the way Paul appeared in the dreams made no sense at all.

Borgli's direction trumps his screenplay, providing startling visualization of these dreams and no two dreams are exactly alike. His daughter is observed floating in the air while Paul watches her float away, while in another dream, the campus is going up in flames and Paul just walks through like nothing's happening and the way he rises to fame and falls just as quickly reminded me of recent cancelled celebrities like Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey or even more simply, the story of Jesus and how his adoring worshippers eventually morphed into a mob that wanted him crucified. What was more aggravating though was Cosby, Spacey, and Jesus' disciples had control over what happened to them, but Paul Matthews is crucified for something he had no control over and we are never offered explanations as to why. Though we do see people find a way to market what was happening to Paul. Some work and some don't and the ending implies the whole movie is a "And then I woke up" thing but never commits to it.

Cage generated a bit of Oscar buzz for this performance and it is totally warranted. His performance does make us care about poor tortured Paul. Solid support is also provided by Julianne Nicholson as Paul's wife, Michael Cera as an advertising executive, Tim Meadows as the college dean, and Dylan Baker, in his accustomed slimy turn as a friend of Paul's. It's a curious piece of filmmaking that cage does make worth checking out.

When My Baby Smiles at Me
As the 20th Century Fox version of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Dan Dailey and Betty Grable made five musicals together and one of their stronger efforts was 1948 gem called When My Baby Smiles at Me, which features a terrific score of tin pan alley classics and an exceptional performance from the leading man.

Bonny Kane and Skid Johnson are vaudeville performers who are touring the country and dong pretty well, despite Skid's battle with the bottle. Skid gets an offer from producer Sam Harris to do a Broadway show, leaving Bonny in the mid west but happy for Skid's success. As soon as she can, Bonny arrives in New York and is distressed to learn that Skid is still drinking and when she sees a picture of him in the paper with his pretty co-star, she promptly files for divorce.

Can't believe it took three writers to come up with this paper thin screenplay that is pretty hard to distinguish from the other four films that Dailey and Grable did together. There chemistry is solid as usual, but this story does attempt to make Skid Johnson more flawed than the usual 1940's musical comedy leading man and Dailey is up to the task, but it doesn't change the fact that just like an Astaire and Rogers picture, we're just happy unless Daily and Grable are together again.

The film is jam packed with classic songs like "Bye Bye Blackbird", "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Ain't We Got Fun", and "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady". Can't deny being a little disturbed by the "Birth of the Blues" which featured Dailey backed u by four chorus girls in blackface. Grable is also given a solo on a huge set called "What Did I Do" which had Grable dancing on a huge stage all by herself but most of it was shot from the waist up so we're unable to see her footwork or those famous million dollar legs.

There's no denying that Dailey lights up the screen in one of his most interesting characters, who doesn't always behave like a good song and dance man. Dailey was so good here the performance earned him his only Oscar nomination for Best Actor, which he lost to Laurence Olivier for Hamlet.. Jack Oakie and June Havoc provide the same comic support they did to Alice Faye in Hello Frisco Hello and as he always did, James Gleason steals every scene's in. But if you're like me and think Dan Dailey was always underrated as a song and dance man, this one's for you.

Louis CK: Back to the Garden
Louis CK finally made his way back to the mike last year in a 2023 concert called Louis CK: Back to the Garden that provides the laughs we're accustomed from the comic but, God, does he make us wait for them.

Louis, like a lot of other live entertainers, has acts opening for them, but Louis has now decided to include his opening acts on his videos. We first have to endure some jazz musician I have never heard of named Ravi Coltrane, whose music recalled the jazz odyssey scene in This is Spinal Tap. When that ends, we are then treated to ten-minute comic routines from not one, but two different aspiring standups, one male and one female, who were so unmemorable I can't even remember their names. The running time on the tape is 1 hour and 58 minutes and Louis doesn't hit the stage until fifty-one minutes into the video. Ironically, the concert's IMDB page lists only the amount of time Louis is onscreen, so be forewarned if you just want to watch Louis, you need to FF through the first fifty-one minutes of the tape.

When Louis does finally hit the stage at Madison Square Garden, we are further aggravated that he doesn't seem to be any hurry to get started. When he finally gets started, he immediately and very cleverly addresses the legal issues that have kept him away from the mike for awhile. The way he directly addresses the issue, without getting into any specifics was nothing short of brilliant. A lot of his material is darker than usual and I have to say a lot of material was stuff that I have thought about a lot but have never actually said out loud. While speaking on the subject of self-confidence, he states true male self-confidence is a guy who has the courage to wear white pants. I was also on the floor when he was talking about when one of your parents die, but it's not the bad parent. His but about farting on a plane as well as his interpretation of certain Bible passages walked a real tightrope too. He also does some stuff about the homeless that borders on offensive.

There were a couple of weird camera things going on here. There was one point where the camera went to a few audience members for reaction and it was weird because I realized that I had never seen audience reactions in a Louis concert before. There was also this very odd moment where Louis delivered a punchline and the camera went to the back of his shoes. Not sure what that was about. As long as you remember to FF through the first fity-one minutes, Louis deiivers the goods as usual.