For some reason, my computer keeps closing my window and I keep losing my post, and this has never happened before. If it does again, I'll have to quit trying to post another Tab. I have to stay up late anyway because I'm waiting for a call from Sarah when she returns to her USC room at school from a concert, but I refuse to keep typing long, personal reviews which I'm unable to retrieve from my history. So I'm going to try an experiment; every two films I type up, I'll post and then I'll try to combine them all up until I'm done. I hope that works because even I get bored typing the same thing three times in an hour.
21 (Robert Luketic, 2008)
This is an OK flick for teenagers who don't know much about gambling or gambling films. It's based on a true story and the lead strongly resembles a younger Ashton Kutcher, but the strong points are actually the inclusion in the cast of Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne. The great gambling films include
The Sting, The Hustler, The Cincinnati Kid, A Big Hand For the Little Lady and
The Gambler. This is about par with
Rounders if you like that one.
Woman of the Year (George Stevens, 1942)
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The last time I tried to discuss this flick, I was double-teamed by Loner and Yoda who both seemed to imply that the film was sexist and that it was a
fait accompli that America's second most-important woman (Kate Hepburn) would completely give up her much too complicated career to become Spencer Tracy's "slave" and housewife by cooking waffles and toast at the same time. The reality of the film is this: After Tracy separates from his wife because he cannot live in her apartment where she's on call 24 hours a day and he's a second-class citizen, Kate attends the marriage of her father to the aunt who basically raised her as her own. During the ceremony, Kate breaks down emotionally listening to the words in the marriage and she comes to a realization that she may now understand why her husband left her. She goes to his apartment, tries to make him (disastrously) his fave breakfast and proclaims that she will give up her career to become his housewife/slave. Spencer Tracy explains to her that she needs to stop going from one extreme to another. He doesn't want her to be "Miss Tess Harding" (all career, no family) any more than he wants her to be Mrs. Sam Craig (all family, no career); instead he thinks she should be Tess Harding Craig, which seems blatantly obvious to me that he wants her to have both a career and a family. Go ahead and watch the ending again if you don't believe me.
The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller, 1964)
Paddy Chayefsky's terrific anti-war script is played out by a great cast, including James Garner as the premier aide-de-camp/procurer (nicknamed "dog robber" in the flick) of an American Admiral (Melvyn Douglas) who "just goes a little funny in the head" at about the same time that D-Day is about to be launched. Garner has just fallen in love with English "prig" Julie Andrews when he finds out the Admiral wants the first American to die on Omaha Beach to be a sailor and Charlie's superior (James Coburn) decides that Charlie has to be there to authenticate the happening. The film is a wonderful satire of war and sex, as well as a romantic comedy, but its main flaw is that it has just so much to say about these subjects that it should be quiet for a few minutes. Even so, the "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor" is actually damned hilarious the more I think of it.
"It's Alive!" (Larry Buchanan, 1969)
That rating is correct, and I believe that Buchanan probably deserves the Mantle of Worst Director of All-Time because I've probably seen at least four of his movies which I give the same rating. This is an alleged TV movie, but all that means is that it was a theatrical feature which ended up on TV because they were so cheap that that was the easiest way to make any money off of them. This film is par for the Buchanan course: it's utterly-ridiculous, horribly-acted, incompetently-directed, incredibly-cheap and I've already used far more words than the thing deserves. The only thing of any value in this film is that it does give one a brief look inside Onyx Cave, Arkansas, but since my intelligent father-in-law is from Arkansas, I'll be the first to say that it taints that state big-time. I don't know why I bother, but this film is so stupid that the bad guy throws the good guys into a cave where "It's Alive!". Meanwhile, his housekeeper moseys on in and provides them with food (with no bars between them) and then she walks away, and the prisoners can't seem to figure out to just follow her out the cave!!
Phone Call from a Stranger (Jean Negulesco, 1952)
This is a surprisingly-mature film where a lawyer (Gary Merrill) leaves his family when he learns that his wife had an affair. He just takes off on the first plane he can, and on-board he meets and befriends three other people who seem to be suffering from similar domestic problems, a singer-actress (Shelley Winters), a formerly-drunken doctor (Michael Rennie) and a buffoonish traveling salesman (Keenan Wynn). When a tragedy strikes, the lawyer goes out of his way to try to repair any damage he feels for the three people and their families, and while doing so, he learns something about his own family situation. Sure, the film is a bit dated in its details but it's amazing how much people's emotions never change, so in that regard, the film hits home very truthfully even if it's mostly-superficial. However, old-school superficial seems more mature than modern superficial. Sorry.
Whatever Works (Woody Allen, 2009)
I was giggling and semi-guffawing during much of this film. First of all, I don't know Larry David from Adam, but he did maybe the second or third best impression of Woody Allen in a Woody Allen movie (after Kenneth Branagh and maybe John Cusack). Besides that, I'm starting to thing that Evan Rachel Wood is the best actress of her generation, and even if her generation is a bit nebulous, she's wonderful in this flick. Most of the other actors are quite good too but I can understand that some viewers might feel that Woody is trying to push just every PC button there is in what turns out to be a case of overkill. Anyway, I, for one, am glad that the Woodman could return to NYC and make a pretty entertaining flick, even though the critics still seem to hate him. Am I just so out of touch or are most critics on auto-pilot?
Youth of the Beast (Seijun Suzuki, 1963)
To me, Suzuki is one of the great camp directors in Japanese history. When I call him a camp director, I don't mean that he makes silly monster movies with guys jumping around in monster suits. I mean that he carved out his own niche in police/gangster flicks and then went out of his way to make his films far-out, crazy and unlike those of his contemporaries. Suzuki films tend to be known for how far they can push the envelope, but in a weird or funny way as opposed to anything highly-dramatic or classic.
Tokyo Drifter and
Branded to Kill border on camp classics, and
Youth of the Beast doesn't seem that far off to me, although I'll be the first to admit that it's better in just about any way a film can be better than another. Even so, where else will you see such things as the personalized mini-flame thrower, the upside-down swinging shooting contest and the scene where you call a razor-slicing dude the "Son of a Whore" when the last time he heard those words he carved up a face into what looked like Venetian Blinds? I've added several more Suzuki films to my queue since my brother loves him, and I'll report back after we watch those available on DVD.
City Girl (F.W. Murnau, 1930)
This Murnau film is neither a classic nor a bomb, but it does have many things which make it clear that it's the work of Murnau. First of all, the sets in the city are quite spectacular, especially the cafe where Mary Duncan works and the Chicago Grain Exchange. Second, the film is
supposed to have inspired
Days of Heaven, and although I saw it in a few superficial ways, it's mostly quite original although it wouldn't surprise me if Malick had access to the film, but if he did, I'd say he was a lucky bastard. The closest comparison is probably the fact that there's a night-time hail storm on the wheat farm which corresponds to the night-time locust attack, but it's still not all that similar if you ask me. As far as
City Girl itself, it's a stronger than normal silent flick, but nowhere near the heights of
Sunrise or
7th Heaven. The DVD does contain a fascinating description and discussion of Murnau's
The Four Devils which was released as both a silent and a talkie but which now no longer exists in any form. It looks incredible with mind-boggling direction instructions, but since it's no longer viewable, I wish some silly person would check out their vaults and produce it ASAP.
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