Gideon58's Reviews

The Girl on the Train
Despite a murky and confusing screenplay, the 2016 psychological drama The Girl on the Train is worth a look, thanks to some stylish directorial touches and some superb performances.

Based on a novel by Paula Hawkins, the film chronicles an alcoholic woman named Rachel who rides a commuter train every day and is obsessed with this woman she sees standing on the balcony of her house, located a couple of hundred yards from the tracks. It is soon revealed that Rachel's obsession is named Megan and works as a nanny for Anna, who is married to Rachel's ex-husband Tom. One day, while passing Megan's house, she sees Megan kissing someone other than her husband and shortly afterwards, Megan turns up missing.

Not sure what screenwriter Erica Cressida Wilson did to Hawkins' book, but the story presented here confuses and defies logic at every turn. Wilson's version of the story carefully sets up Rachel's alcoholism, which results in blackouts and her losing time. We are then treated to numerous flashbacks and flash forwards in Rachel's mind, making the viewer think that Rachel is responsible for what happened to Megan and just doesn't remember. Then near the beginning of the final act, the screenplay does a complete 180 rendering everything we've seen up to that point senseless and degenerating into some heavy handed melodrama that makes the final act a little hard to take.

Director Tate Taylor (The Help, Ma) does show some real style with the camera though that gives the story a little more substance than it deserves. His camera work definitely has some Hitchcock and De Palma influence to it, motivating complete attention from the viewer, thinking that we're going to get answers to questions that we never really do.

Tate also manages to deliver some first rate performances from his cast, especially Emily Blunt, effectively unhinged as Rachel and the severely underrated Justin Theroux as Tom that are actually better than this story deserves. The screenplay has its problems, but the acting is top-notch and Taylor is proving himself to be a director to watch.

Like a Boss
Female empowerment in the movies takes a severe beating in 2020's Like a Boss, a silly, predictable and unfunny comedy that was completely humorless and barely motivated this reviewer to crack a smile, let alone laugh out loud.

Mia (Tiffany Haddish) and Mel (Rose Byrne) have been BFF's since they were teenagers and now run their own cosmetics company, which is on the verge of going under because of Mia's outspoken bossiness and need to party all the time, while Mel struggles with the bottom line. They are thrown a lifeline when a wealthy cosmetics empress named Claire Luna offers to bail them out for partial ownership of their company, trying to destroy Mia and Mel's friendship in the process.

The path of this story is about as predictable as they come. We have the alleged best friends who actually have little or nothing in common and have completely different ideals and work morals temporarily torn apart by an outside force, who get wise to the force and get revenge. It's never really made clear why this Claire Luna woman wants to buy into this company on the verge of bankruptcy in the first place or why after Mia and Mel keep screwing up, she keeps giving the girls second chances.

The so-called comedy moves at a snail's pace and has one silly scene after another. We know we're in trouble when our heroines get stoned at a baby shower and jump into a swimming pool. It only gets worse during a girls' luncheon where Haddish eats a hot pepper,
prompting a lot of belching and spitting food back onto her plate. Haddish's near tumble from a very high balcony is almost as embarrassing as the conclusion of the film which makes no sense at all.

Tiffany Haddish is allegedly a very funny woman who is getting a serious fan base but she has failed to make me laugh with any kind of consistency and this film was no exception and I know I've mentioned in other reviews how unfunny I think Rose Byrne is. I never believe these two as BFF's and that might be at the crux of what's really wrong with this movie. Even the charismatic Salma Hayek, fitted in an atrocious red wig, fails to register as the bitchy Claire Luna. Basically, another 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Gravity
Alfonso Cuaron became the first Hispanic filmmaker to win the Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Direction for 2013's Gravity, an eye-popping, heart-stopping outer space adventure that had me fidgeting in my chair, holding my breath, grinding my teeth, talking to myself, talking back to the screen, and fighting the occasional tear.

Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer working on a space shuttle with veteran astronaut Matthew Kowalski (George Clooney), who get stranded in space when the shuttle explodes. Ryan and Matthew are initially tethered together but when they get separated, Ryan finds herself on her own, trying to find a way back home.

Cuaron has created a breathtaking cinematic experience that blends sci fi adventure with genuine human emotions that tend to get lost in a story like this. The leisurely opening of the movie where Kowalski casually flirts with Ryan and telling stories about drunken escapades on Bourbon Street completely belies the terrifying story that unfolds.

Cuaron has masterfully brought to the screen exactly what gravity is, thanks to superior camerawork and film editing (Cuaron won a second Oscar for his editing of the film). The camera doesn't always follow the actors the way it would in a more conventional story. The story never forgets the concept of weightlessness and doesn't always allow us inside those astronaut helmets to see what these two people are feeling. It's as if gravity is another character in the story, the villain of the piece if you will.

The emotionally charged aspect of the story kicks in around the halfway point when Ryan thinks she's alone. It's heartbreaking as she continues to try to reach Houston but the only radio contact she's able to make is with someone who doesn't speak English, which she regards as permission to feel what she's really feeling...genuine fear.

In addition to Cuaron's two Oscars, the film won five other statuettes for its flawless production values, as well as a Best Picture nomination and a Lead Actress nomination for Bullock. In a word, a blazing cinematic achievement that stops the heart and rivets the viewer.

Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation
Netflix was the force behind a less angry, but quietly hysterical evening with this one of a kind comic talent entitled Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation that not only provides huge laughs, but food for thought.

The primary reason I loved this concert was the feeling of intimacy it provides. I'm not sure where it was filmed, but it appeared to be a tiny club where Dave could shake hands with the people seated in the front row. The curtain was closed and Dave sat on a stool at the very edge of the stage right in front of the footlights, It was like he was a guest at your own private cocktail party and he just happened to be the guy leading the conversation at the time. It felt like we were being rewarded with a viewing of something we weren't perhaps meant to see.

Topical as always, Dave bases a lot of his comedy around the Me Too movement. As a matter of fact, a specific timeline is offered when Dave reveals that earlier that day the allegations against Charlie Rose came out. He also takes no prisoners in his opinions regarding Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, but somehow nothing he says ever seems bitchy or mean-spirited. He finds the humor in all these situations without being nasty.

I loved his very specific take on Michael Jackson that he effortlessly weaved in between his Me Too material. He offers his own theory about Michael and Neverland Ranch and what Michael's real purpose might have been in bringing those children to the ranch that brought hysterical laughter from his audience and at the same time reveals that Dave is no fool and knows what time it was regarding Jackson.

This was also the first concert of Chappelle's I've seen where he addresses his alleged meltdown about 12 years ago that motivated him to walk away from his top rated variety show. He offers enough information to pacify his audience but it's also clear that this is a private matter for him that he'd like to remain that way. This also led to Dave referencing a book written by a pimp named Iceberg Slim and the effect it had on his life. This was the first time a comic ever made me want to read a book.

The intimacy of this show is really what made it so special. This is the first comedy special I have ever seen where there are moments during Dave's storytelling where he has the audience so enraptured, I swear you can hear a pin drop in that theater. Quite the accomplishment for a stand up comedian.

The Boss Baby
The eternal question of where do babies come from is imaginatively addressed by 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks in an animated gem from 2017 called The Boss Baby that effectively blends slick and sophisticated humor and a surprising touch of warmth to great effect, even if the screenplay is a bit over-complicated.

The title character (brilliantly voiced by Alec Baldwin) appears in a cab, wearing a suit and tie as the new baby brother of the spoiled seven year old Tim Templeton (voiced by Miles Bashki), whose parents (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow) are employed by a company called Puppy Corp. It seems that Baby Boss is from a company called Baby Corp who fear their destruction is imminent because puppies are believed to be cuter than babies and they've received word that Puppy Corp has come up with a new product that is sure to destroy Baby Corp...a puppy that never grows old and stays a puppy.

The Boss Baby enjoys the control of his older brother as part of his mission until it is stalled when Tim gets grounded for life. In order for Baby Boss to complete his mission and for Tim to get Baby Boss out of his life, they have to work together to bring down the CEO of Puppy Corp, the evil Francis Francis (voiced by Steve Buscemi).

The screenplay is a little complex as it tries to tell two stories at once. The story of the manufactured brothers learning how to be real brothers is a lot more interesting than the story of Baby Corp VS Puppy Corp, making the story a little hard to follow at times, but the relationship between Boss Baby and Tim eventually becomes the core of the story and keeps the viewer invested in the sometimes confusing goings on.

The story is rich with pop culture references and some surprising contemporary choices in music. The screenplay even manages to squeeze in Baldwin's most famous line from Glengarry Glen Ross. Some of the story's cards are played too soon as the film opens with the creation of the Boss Baby, which happens on an elaborate assembly line, giving away immediately that this is no ordinary baby. It would have been more interesting if this had been revealed later on in the story, perhaps through flashback with Boss Baby narrating.

The film is a lot of fun and provides a lot of laughs. The initial scenes of Baby Boss' arrival and how he completely dominates Tim's parents time and attention are easy to relate to and we initially consider the title character to be the villain of the piece, but that changes when it's revealed that if he doesn't complete his mission, Baby Boss will become a regular old baby and neither we or Tim are sure that we want that.

The animation is crisp and colorful and the story moves at a nice pace, giving us a baby eye's view of the world that is quite endearing. Like a lot of new millenium animation, there are a couple too many endings, but when the ending finally comes, it's a winner.

A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
A Kiss Before Dying is a big budget melodrama from 1956 that is watchable, despite its eventual drowning in cinematic soap suds and some wooden performances.

A young and devilishly handsome Robert Wagner stars as Bud Corliss, a college student who is romancing a wealthy heiress named Dorothy (Joanne Woodward) as a way of getting his hands on her inheritance. Dorothy ends up pregnant and informs Bud that she's certain if her father finds out, she will be disinherited. Bud gets out of the relationship by murdering Dorothy and making it look like a suicide and then immediately starts dating Dorothy's sister, Ellen (Virginia Leith), who, unbeknownst to Bud, has enlisted the aid of a slow-witted police detective named Gordon Grant (Jeffrey Hunter) in figuring out who murdered Dorothy, because Ellen refuses to believe her sister committed suicide.

Lawrence Roman's screenplay, based on a novel by Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby) doesn't bear too close scrutiny because there's a lot of stuff that happens here that just wouldn't get by 2020 movie audiences. The police actually believing that both deaths that occur during the story are suicides is just ridiculous and their figuring out what really happened takes way too long. Not to mention the stupidity of Bud typing a confession and leaving it in the typewriter for anyone to see.

The strongest part of the film is the first third where Bud learns Dorothy is pregnant and begins plotting her demise. Director Gerd Oswald puts a lot of detail into projecting the slickness of this Bud character and how miserable he is with Dorothy. There is a bit too much time spent depicting Bud studying poison and preparing his demise of poor Dorothy but the main reason this is the best part of the movie is because Dorothy is played by Joanne Woodward, who gives the best performance in the film. It actually would have been interesting to see Woodward playing Ellen and Leith playing Dorothy.

The MGM gloss was apparently not restricted to musicals, because this film is handsomely mounted, including some gorgeous cinematography by Lucien Ballard. Lionel Newman's music is a little on the intrusive side, but not to the point of distraction. Robert Wagner works hard at bringing the slick to Bud Corliss, but I have to admit I kept picturing James Dean in the role and Oscar winner Mary Astor is wasted in a thankless role as Bud's mother. Joanne Woodward is superb; however, her role in the film comes to an end pretty quickly. The film was remade in 1991 with Matt Dillon and Sean Young in the Wagner and Leith roles.

That's looks fun, I've not seen it, but I'm a big fan of Virginia Leith. I'll have to watch that sometime.

She was terrible but Joanne Woodward and Robert Wagner were good. And yes, I thought about you when I was watching it, I think you'd like it.

Have you seen Toward the Unknown (1956) with William Holden and Virginia Leith? It's about test pilots, but it's mostly a drama-romance-soap opera type movie. You might like it.

No, I haven't, I'll check it out if I can find it.

Wild Oats
Despite the presence of two of the best actresses in the business in the starring roles, the 2016 comic adventure Wild Oats starts off promisingly but eventually dissolves into logic-defying silliness not worthy of the stars.

Shirley MacLaine plays Eva Fenton, a widow who receives the insurance check from her husband's death, which is supposed to be $50,000, but it turns out to be $5,000,000 instead. After attempts to return the money to the insurance company are of no avail, Eva decides to take her best friend, Maddie (Jessica Lange) on a lavish vacation in the Canary Islands. Of course, the insurance company sends an agent (Howard Hesseman) to drag Eva back to the states while she gets involved with a charming con artist (Billy Connolly) and Maddie finds romance with a recently dumped man (Jay Hayden) half her age.

This movie actually gets off to a very funny start. The scenes at Eva's husband's funeral have just the right touch of black comedy and the scene of Eva and Maddie trying to get a live operator on the phone at the insurance company had me on the floor. Sadly, once the ladies get to the islands, the story gets sillier and sillier as everyone in the Canary Islands seems to be on to the fact that Eva has a lot of money and she actually gets involved with some allegedly dangerous criminals who are more stupid than dangerous. Basically, what we have here is Golden Girls meets Thelma and Louise and our stars our just too old for this kind of slapstick.

Director Andy Tennant (Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama) has been afforded a huge budget for this mess. The movie features elaborate international scenery and first rate production design, but none of this disguises the fact that this movie is just much to do about nothing. Billy Connolly exudes a modicum of charm pretending to be John Cleese and the long-absent-from-the-screen Howard Hesseman is a lot of fun as the insurance agent. And let's not forget Demi Moore, cast against type as MacLaine's persnickety daughter, but staying invested with this one was a bit of a chore.

I seen that one. I agree with your review and I rated it even lower than you.

Yeah, my mad love for Jessica Lange motivated me to watch it and it was a disappointment. I think I only rated it as I high as I did out of respect for her.

Blue Collar
Before Silkwood and Norma Rae, Paul Schrader made an impressive debut as director and screenwriter with 1978's Blue Collar, a gritty and uncompromising drama that like the above referenced films, questions the validity and integrity of unions and what they are allegedly doing or not doing to protect employees.

The setting is an automotive plant in Detroit where three employees and close knit friends have grown disgusted with the mistreatment and neglect they are getting from their union and decide to get revenge by breaking into the union safe. There's not much money in the safe but they do find a ledger with incriminating information about the union. They decide to use this ledger to blackmail the union, a fatalistic decision that not only blows up in their faces but destroys their friendship as well in a multitude of ways.

Schrader has a proven record as a screenwriter (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Affliction) and the genesis of this talent can be found in this expertly crafted story of friendship and corruption that manages to establish the central relationship between the three lead characters, document their personal motivations for committing their crime, and show how the union appears to have their backs at the beginning of the story but eventually becomes all about self-preservation.

As a director, Schrader shows an uncanny skill for using varied tools in displaying the effects of the story not only to the characters, but to the atmospheres they inhabit. There is a scene near the beginning of the film where we witness the workers at the local watering hole blowing off steam. There's a scene at the beginning of the final act in the same bar where the atmosphere is completely different...the place is practically empty and there's a viable tension in the air that is a creation of Schrader through his direction. He also manages to look inside these people and show how what's happening is affecting them...the scene where the three guys decide that they should stop hanging out together is a pivotal scene that charges emotions and changes the whole direction of the story.

Schrader also managed to put together the perfect cast to bring his story to fruition. Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto deliver powerhouse performances as the trio at the center of the story, with a particularly strong performance from Pryor, who is allowed to display some seriously dramatic acting chops here. Some other familiar faces pop up along the way, including Ed Begley Jr, Cliff DeYoung, Milton Seltzer, and Tracey Walter, but more than anything, this film is a testament to the talent of master storyteller Paul Schrader.

That you, Gideon, are still going as strong and consistent with your reviews is crazy to me. You are way ahead of everybody else with the tagged reviews, well done I must say. Very impressive.

Coming from you, that means so much, you have no idea. Thank you.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture
It's not often that we get a biopic of someone who is really worthy of a biopic and when that biopic attempts to redefine the genre while telling the story, that's just icing on the cake. The 2018 film A Stupid and Futile Gesture takes a look at one of contemporary comedy's greatest influences while simultaneously skewering the biopic genre through a very jaundiced eye.

This film is the story of Doug Kenney,a Harvard graduate, who along with his best friend, Henry Beard created National Lampoon Magazine, whose writing staff included future writers for SNL like Anne Beatts and Michael O'Donoghue. The magazine eventually gives birth to a radio show that provided work for original Not Ready for Prime Time Players Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi. The film then documents Kenney's eventual move into film making, which produced two of the greatest film comedies ever made...National Lampoon's Animal House and Caddyshack.

The screenplay by Michael Colton and John Aboud has flashes of brilliance as it attempts to tell Kenney's story while making fun of the biopic genre at the same time, breaking the 4th wall constantly, akin to the Deadpool franchise. We are never allowed to forget we are watching a movie. Like Deadpool, the script actually references the name of the actor playing the lead role. There is such irreverence and insanity to the proceedings that at times it's difficult to remember that we're watching a movie about a real person or that anything we're witnessing ever actually happened. It was a little disconcerting watching the productions of Animal House and Caddyshack being completely fueled by cocaine.
Unfortunately, the final third of the film does fall back into standard biopic format before bouncing back for a fabulous finale.

The cinematic concept of Doug Kinney is pretty straightforward for the most part. Kenney is presented as a man who is all about funny, what he thinks is funny, and how to keep everyone in his orbit falling off their collective chairs in laughter. He can even acknowledge what is funny even if it's not the way we expect. Loved the scene where he goes to see Airplane! and is furious because he thinks the movie is so much funnier than Caddyshack.

Will Forte gives the performance of his career as the deranged Kenney, giving the character the right balance of warmth and wackiness. Domhnall Gleason underplays to great effect as Henry and there some great work from Natasha Lyonne as Anne Beatts, Matt Walsh as Lampoon publisher Matty Simmons, Jon Daly as Bill Murray and especially Joel McHale, uncanny as Chevy Chase. Hard to tell how close the film sticks to the facts, but it was so entertaining I really didn't care.

I saw the remake of A Kiss Before Dying a while back, and I thought it was an interesting movie, but not a great movie. The original has been on my watchlist for a long time, but I still haven't seen it.

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

I purposely wanted to watch the original first. I mainly watched it because of Joanne Woodward who didn't disappoint, I just wish her role had been bigger.

Altman
Unconventional would be a masterpiece of understatement when talking about the career of five time Best Director nominee Robert Altman. There are elements of the 2014 documentary Altman that are unconventional, but i'm pretty sure Altman himself would have demanded a re-shoot at some point. Still this documentary is worthy of the subject, even if it might be a little overprotective of him.

Like any good documentary, I did learn things about Altman I never knew before. I was unaware that Altman actually began his Hollywood career as a screenwriter and soon became a television director, which he hated because of constant kow-towing he had to do to network executives who controlled the purse strings. It was on the set of one of these TV shows, a little something called Whirlybirds, that he met an actress named Kathryn Reed, who would soon become his third wife and remain his wife until his death. Kathryn provides the narration for most of this film, which I found to be a bit of a detriment as her very dry delivery of the material gave the film a slight lumbering quality.

Another issue I had with this documentary is that it concentrated a little too much on Altman's triumphs. The praise lavished upon MASH, Nashville, Short Cuts, The Player, and Gosford Park was lovely, but expected. I was looking forward to some insight into Altman's flops like a Perfect Couple, A Wedding, and Beyond Therapy and possibly getting some opinions from the man himself as to why the films failed. The only Altman flop that was discussed in any length was Popeye, which included a scathing television review from late film critic Gene Shalit.

Several actors who have worked with Altman, including Michael Murphy, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, James Caan, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, and Robin Williams make appearances but instead of being allowed to talk about their feelings about working with Altman, they were only asked a single question...they were asked to give their definition of the imaginary adjective "Altmanesque". I would have liked to have heard a little more from these folks.

On the plus side, this documentary did feature a lot of footage of Altman actually onset in the process of directing, something I haven't seen a lot of in films like this. There was also a moment shared by one of his sons, who shares his mixed feelings about Dad, who he felt loved him, despite the fact he was never home.

One thing that comes across loud and clear in this film is that Altman was a director who did things his own way and if he couldn't, he didn't do them. He said something when he accepted his Lifetime Achievement Oscar that I don't think a lot of directors have been able to say. He said that he never made a film he didn't want to make and I'm pretty sure you will be surprised at what Altman considered his best work and this reveal was worth the price of admission alone.