Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

The problem is that it doesn't establish its 1940s setting well enough. The film does start with Streisand working on a radio play, which should have clued me in but I shrugged it off because for all I knew people still listened to radio plays in the early-1970s. It took until the scene after the opening credits where Streisand was leading a rally protesting World War II that it seriously clicked for me.

I remember DVRing Hawking when it got replayed on SBS around the same time that The Theory of Everything first got released in theatres. I'll get around to it sooner or later.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Also, I kept trying to include this video in my review of Still Alice, but the fact that YouTube videos automatically show up as embedded when I want them to just show up as hyperlinks stopped that from happening.

You seem to feel simiarly to me (and most of the Brits here, I think) about The Imitation Game. The flashback framing of the narrative is so inconsequential that I don't think I've seen anyone else mention it.

What were "Cumberbatch... has made some less-than-sensitive comments about autism" about? I remember seeing he said something about Autism being a label which is often (I think he said lazily) slapped on people and characters, which is something I agree with completely, but nothing that make me question his attitude.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Do this.

Julianne Moore Loves To Cry

There was this interview he gave to Graham Norton a few years back when he was performing Frankenstein on stage and he says part of his preparation for the role of the Monster involved spending time around autistic children and the way he describes comes across as more than a little patronising, if not downright offensive. Googling that particular interview turned up some more recent statements where he didn't want people labeling characters like Alan Turing or Sherlock Holmes as autistic. While that might be coming from a place of genuine concern for real autistic people, it also comes across as a bit dismissive of an audience's interpretation in favour of his own, especially since those aforementioned characters display enough of the associated traits that such interpretations do make sense.

The war scenes in The Imitation Game were lazily done and really took me out of the experience at times. Despite the fudging of some facts, I thought the performances and the film as a whole were very good.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I personally think TCaT is great.

Probably won't make my top ten Hitches but it seems like most members of my family would put it in their's.

The only two Hitch films I didn't like.





Both

I am morbidly curious about watching Topaz because of its reputation for being Hitchcock's worst film. Sabotage doesn't look particularly interesting either.

Sabotage is better because it has the bomb on the bus scene. Topaz has um... um.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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I like To Catch a Thief. Not an overall great movie, but it is a fun watch.

For the most part, my attitude toward The Way We Were mirrored the characters in the film. I enjoyed it early on, then gradually became more and more disillusioned as the romance fizzled.

To Catch a Thief is much more lighthearted and airy than any other Hitchcock film I've seen. I think it's a very charming and entertaining film, despite being lesser Hitchcock.

I haven't seen any of the Oscar contenders you've watched lately, but I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Still Alice. Moore seems to be the runaway favorite to take home the Oscar, but I don't know anyone who has actually seen the film.

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But so does Godfather II, and that's a great film.

Still Alice stood out to me because of my grandmother. A good performance (she's done better) in a decent film. Enough to get an emotional rise out of me.

#102 - Spartacus
Stanley Kubrick, 1960



During the final days of the Roman Republic, a slave being trained for gladiatorial combat rises up against his masters and amasses an army of slaves.

I'm still working through Kubrick's filmography - still have to watch most of his pre-Lolita work at this point - and I figured that Spartacus would be interesting because of its notorious reputation for being a mainstream Hollywood epic filmed by an idiosyncratic auteur like Kubrick. There are touches of Kubrick's sensibility that would be much better realised in his later films, but in the context of a major blockbuster they somehow manage to make perfect sense and yet add very little to what now feels like a fairly rote attempt at making an epic picture.

Virtually every Kubrick protagonist worth his salt can be considered a blank slate against which the rest of the film can play. Kirk Douglas as the title character, here looking like a colourised version of Marv from Sin City stuffed into a cloth sack, seems like an ideal confirmation of this hypothesis. Unfortunately, that's not what a film like this needs and, while an audience is naturally sympathetic to the plight of a person born into slavery daring to break their chains, when that's basically all that we have going for Spartacus at first, then it's hard to think of him as a good character. Sure, we get demonstrations of his code of honour and his romance with a fellow slave (Jean Simmons) that both serve to humanise him, but neither one makes him an especially compelling character.

Aside from Douglas, there are a few characters that work to varying degrees. I find it a bit interesting that the more prominent characters on the slaves' side tend to be played by American actors while the patrician characters tend to be played by British actors. Laurence Olivier serves as the closest thing there is to a main villain, but he has enough gravitas to make his character far more interesting than Spartacus himself. The doughy yet affable Charles Laughton makes for a good counterpart to Olivier's handsome schemer, while Peter Ustinov manages to earn an Oscar for his part as a duplicitous slave trader who somehow manages to maintain an air of moral ambiguity despite the fact that, y'know, he's a slave trader. Tony Curtis' presence is a bit distracting at first, but he gets enough to work with as another former slave that gets to recite poetry and perform magic tricks in one scene. Simmons is decent enough, even if she does ultimately get relegated to love interest.

As for the rest of the film, well, it's certainly epic. Though there are some notable instances of the film's effects falling flat (such as the crowd shots in the lead-up to the film's last huge battle), the rest of the production is decent enough. A cast of thousands here, elaborate set design here - even if it wasn't completely Kubrick's film, you certainly can't fault the practical element. I do have a bit of a quarrel with Alex North's score, which naturally aims to be as bombastic as a film of this magnitude demands but ultimately ends up coming across as obnoxious more often than not. Otherwise, this is a film that holds up well enough in a practical regard but its writing could definitely use some improvement, especially when esteemed actors like Olivier or Ustinov are delivering lines. Three hours is also a bit of a stretch for a storyline as thin as this one, no matter how many scenes of political intrigue you can fit in.

#103 - The Miracle Worker
Arthur Penn, 1962



Based on the early life of deafblind author Helen Keller, where she has to learn to communicate from a near-blind teacher.

Even when you take into account just how tiresome the whole "inspirationally disadvantaged" trope has becomes in the subsequent decades, it does very little to seriously impact how The Miracle Worker pans out. Given its basis on theatrical plays, the filmmaking on offer clearly helps to emphasise the strong writing - monochrome photography, lack of music, long takes, and so forth. Even the snippets of flashbacks that reveal the backstory of Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft) are deliberately blurry and laid over the present-day footage as well. Of course, for the most part the camerawork and editing don't draw that much attention, and it's just as well because this is a very well-done film on the acting front. As befitting a play, there are only a handful or so of characters and the bulk of the film is limited to the Keller house and its immediate environs, but that unity of setting is a benefit.

Most of the film is carried by its two leads - Bancroft adopts a thick Irish brogue as Sullivan, spending much of the film playing an affable yet authoritarian teacher who is still prone to moments of exasperation of vulnerability without it coming across as inconsistent. Helen Keller herself is played by newcomer Patty Duke, who gets the challenging role of playing Helen without making it descend into a patronising pantomime. The scenes between Duke and Bancroft naturally play out as if they were straight out of a silent movie (barring the actual noises and Bancroft's admonishments, of course), and the scene roughly halfway through where both leads are locked in the dining room fighting over how to eat lunch properly plays out like an intricately choreographed fight scene. Also, there are no real instances that play out like standard break-through moments (save perhaps the film's famed ending), with Helen's development playing out very slowly (if not off-screen completely) and being prone to setbacks. What few other characters are there - such as the other members of the Keller family, whose attitudes towards Helen range from strained optimism to gruff authoritarianism, yet they all still feel fully realised.

Despite its Oscar-bait premise, The Miracle Worker is a fine film in just about every regard. Minimalist filmmaking, a strong ensemble of actors, powerhouse directing and an innovative take on disability tropes (or maybe, given its age, it's actually a rather original film) all combine to make a genuinely impressive film. If you're going through the "100 Years...100 Cheers" list and have yet to reach this one, it's definitely better than your typical "inspirational" film.

#104 - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Fred Schepisi, 1978



Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally, it follows an indigenous Australian of mixed heritage at the turn of the century as he leaves home and tries to make his way in the world.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is definitely a rough film to watch, if nothing else. The gritty Seventies feel combines with some genuinely shocking violence to make for a film that, though it's a bit longer than it needs to be, is still an important piece of Australian cinema. As with a lot of these local classics, you can spot a lot of familiar faces in the supporting cast (Bryan Brown, John Jarratt, Jack Thompson...the list goes on), but it's Tommy Lewis as the titular character that gives this film its edge. Jimmie spends the first half of this film as a smiling, eager-to-please half-caste man desperately trying to find a place in the world despite being disgusted with the hard-drinking black community and rejected by the horribly racist white community. It's a difficult performance to get right as it has to balance a variety of factors, especially as he becomes driven to take the actions that he does in the second half, but Lewis manages to do so and makes for a fascinating character the whole way through. Other characters cover a considerable spectrum and are well-developed enough so that not every character can be written off as one thing or another (of particular note is a white butcher who sidelines as a hangman and must constantly entertain voyeuristic comments from one of his customers.)

Technically, the film has some rough yet cinematic photography that suits the untamed landscapes on display, a largely restrained yet effective score and some good effects work. The second half of this film, well, the less I say about it the better, but what will suffice is that it covers Jimmie's reaction against the incredibly prejudiced white folks he's encountered over the course of the story, which of course proves much more complex and horrific than the average revenge narrative. Even so, I figure the film as a whole could've been trimmed here and there - some characters (such as the posse that starts hunting Jimmie) just don't need that much screen-time. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is an essential piece of Australian cinema and, much like Wake in Fright, serves as an extremely harsh depiction of pre-Federation Australia.

#105 - Gone with the Wind
Victor Fleming, 1939



In the lead-up to the American Civil War, a Southern belle struggles with her difficult romantic situation while also trying to keep her family plantation afloat.

Another day, another all-time classic that doesn't really need all that much said about it by someone like me. For the most part, I liked it. Of course, I look at the depiction of the black house servants as being more than a little...problematic (then again, what did I expect from a film that romanticised the pre-war Deep South and the Confederacy?) but otherwise it's a solid film. I'm amazed at how well the oversaturated Technicolor visuals hold up after seventy-five years and the story still has enough interesting developments, plus there's some decent characterisation on offer despite the main characters tending to come across as self-absorbed and not entirely sympathetic (but still enough so that I don't really mind). I'm still giving it a relatively low rating for the time being (at the end of the day, there's no getting around the pro-Confederacy vibe of the film and I'm not sure it really earns its four-hour running time), but I'm willing to accept that it might grow on me a bit. Definitely not as bad as I admittedly expected it to be.

#106 - Hawking
Philip Martin, 2004



Based on the story of Stephen Hawking, the famed astrophysicist who contracted motor neurone disease at the age of 21.

Apparently the first ever biopic about Hawking, even if I hadn't already watched The Theory of Everything I'd still think that Hawking was hampered by a number of issues (although watching it second meant I was at least aware of how many details carried over to the later film). Hawking seems extremely focused on relaying the man's most noteworthy discovery, that of the theory that time has a beginning, but it's at the expense of the rest of the film. The film adds in a sub-plot involving a pair of scientists discussing their Nobel-winning breakthrough on television but it doesn't add anything of interest to the main plot, not even as a loose Greek chorus about Hawking's own narrative. If anything, it feels like it was added in so as to pad out this very thin telemovie to 90 minutes. Meanwhile, the film covers the time between him first being diagnosed with MND and him making his first major discovery. By focusing on him before his disorder becomes too much of an obstacle, the film does avoid making the film about him overcoming his disorder, but then the main conflict just becomes Hawking devising his theory, which just shifts his narrative from one lot of clichés to another (and the other set are quite simply boring). There are the older academics who think he might be on to something, the even older academics who scoff at his theories, his patient and understanding love interest, etc. Hawking struggles with his work except when he has conveniently sudden epiphanies and so on and so forth.

The filmmaking on offer is understandably pedestrian and unremarkable given the film's status as a BBC made-for-TV production so it's hardly worth commenting on. The acting isn't much chop - Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't do much of note in the title role aside from the occasional fumble, stumble or slur to remind you that, yes, you are watching a movie about Stephen Hawking and not just any English physicist. Nobody else in the film comes across as even remotely memorable. I can understand why the makers wouldn't want to do a film that focused primarily on Hawking's disability, but the fact that the film frames the main conflict as Hawking trying to complete his work before succumbing to his disease fails to set up any urgency whatsoever. This race-against-time narrative is not the kind of approach you want to take with a film about Hawking, no matter how rooted in truth it may be.

#107 - Infernal Affairs
Alan Mak and Andrew Lau Wai-keung, 2002



Two different cadets in the Hong Kong police - one a mole by a crime lord, the other expelled in order to go undercover - find themselves on opposite sides during an investiation into organised crime.

I haven't watched Infernal Affairs in about a decade and, seeing as it was available to stream through SBS On Demand, I thought it was worth re-acquainting myself. The high concept of two moles on different sides of the law is a great one and it helps that the film is a lean one, clocking in at just over 90 minutes and only giving its core ensemble of characters enough development so as to avoid dragging things out. After a few minutes setting up the core characters - the cop (Tony Leung, great as always), the mole (Andy Lau) and their respective bosses - it doesn't take long before getting into the action (but not before having one underrated scene where the two leads, unaware of each other's identities, bond over stereo equipment). From there, the film moves slowly but confidently through its plot.

If there is one major problem that I do have with Infernal Affairs, it's that it's ultimately kind of sterile. In keeping with my comments about the utilitarian characterisation, it can be a little hard to tell whether the actors are showing restraint or are just delivering flat performances. There are still some highlights - Eric Tsang serves as the crime boss and he manages to get in a few striking outbursts while still remaining fairly affable and realistic, while Leung and Lau are still capable of subtly conveying increasingly severe inner conflicts through the slightest changes in facial expression. One could also debate the effectiveness of giving each of the leads their own love interest (Leung's character has a thing with his court-ordered psychiatrist, while Lau's character dates a novelist whose story not-so-subtly reflects Lau's own inner conflict), but I personally reckon that, despite their relative lack of scenes, they make a sufficient impact anyway.

Keeping that in mind, the actual style of the film could use improvement anyway. Though I understand that it's not meant to be a straightforward action movie in the vein of John Woo, some sequences could definitely be handled better (such as a certain scene involving an elevator...), which is ruined by gratuitous effects work such as sudden swapping between colour and monochrome for no good reason. Also, just because it's a Hong Kong crime movie doesn't mean it automatically has to have slow motion because more often than not it doesn't serve a purpose (other than maybe get this film to reach the 90-minute mark). Minor technical quibbles aside, Infernal Affairs is still a solid example of modern Hong Kong crime cinema. It may come across as underweight given its reputation, but the tendency to avoid extraneous detail (except where it matters, such as the scene with the stereo equipment or the moment where Leung's character meets an ex-girlfriend) results in a slick film that doesn't wear out its welcome.

Gone With the Wind as you mentioned has great color even on today's standards. It also has a warm and honest feeling, which fits well with a strong story of love and drama. On the negative side, the multiple directors with totally different styles kind of mess up the overall flow and it is an old film so there were some parts that couldn't relate to me. Still a great masterpiece.

I haven't seen Hawking but I disliked this year's Theory of Everything so I don't think I'll enjoy another similar film.

Infernal Affairs is far more superior to it's remake, The Departed, yet people ignore it hugely. A depressing fact because the film is one of my favorites and just better overall on every aspect than the Scorcese version.