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THE HEIRESS (1949)
d: William Wyler
CAST: Olivia de Havilland; Montgomery Clift; Ralph Richardson; Miriam Hopkins
> wonderful wonderful the-worm-that-turned story; Olivia is an "ugly duckling" who is suddenly courted by Monty because she is rich...too naive to recognise the brutal truth, her cold & disappointed-in-her father decides it's his job to point it out to her...result: heart broken, then hardened; lush 1800's costumes, sets and manners (it's based on a Henry James novel); spot-on acting with Olivia and Ralph having the best roles and giving the best performances; the classic final scene (and its slow build-up) manages to somehow be both satisfying and uncomfortably bitter; a fascinating tragedy
Award-Worthy Performances
Olivia de Havilland; Ralph Richardson
INHERENT VICE (2014)
d: Paul Thomas Anderson
CAST: Joaquin Phoenix; Josh Brolin; Owen Wilson; Reese Witherspoon; Benicio del Toro
> complicated Private Eye story (ref. Farewell My Lovely; Chinatown) with equal amounts of comedy, drama and weirdness; set in 1970 hippies 'n' drugs L.A. with Joaquin as the groovy and constantly-stoned investigator and Josh as his bad-cop nemesis; remains interesting throughout despite numerous meanderings and overdependence on Joaquin to hold the whole sprawl together (which he nearly does...it's a puppydog performance); side-characters should've been even more eccentric just to jazz up the fleeting meetings & conversations; and, at 149 minutes long, it insists upon too much attention, but it's worth the effort
Award-Worthy Performance
Joaquin Phoenix
FURY (1936)
d: Fritz Lang
CAST: Spencer Tracy; Sylvia Sidney; Bruce Cabot; Walter Brennan
> re-viewed this after reading terrific biography Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast by Patrick McGilligan; I'm picking up niggling little flaws in the film which I hadn't noticed / cared about in first two viewings: the crappy happy ending of course...the business with the peanuts & the memento / momentum hoke...the fact that the near-lynched victim "comes good" due to conscience rather than (Fritz's preferred) overwhelming sense of guilt...the early build-up scenes are a little sappy and ring false compared to what comes after; still a riveting film, but not as sensational as I once thought
Award-Worthy Performance
Spencer Tracy
GETTIN' SQUARE (2003)
d: Jonathan Teplitzky
CAST: Sam Worthington; David Wenham; Timothy Spall; Gary Sweet
> if Quentin Tarantino was an Aussie...; a great-fun crime comedy, quintessentially Australian but open to anyone with a pulse and an appreciation of enthusiastic film-making; many laughs in this, mostly character-driven with dialogue delivered straight and fast; David plays an absolutely hilarious classic-style bogan (def: Australianism; coarse person with a low IQ and dreadful taste in all things)...to watch him run in thongs & jocks is to bust a gut; clever script greatly served by all concerned; if something like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch can be critically lauded, this should've conquered the world
Award-Worthy Performance
David Wenham
THE GETTING OF WISDOM (1978)
d: Bruce Beresford
CAST: Susannah Fowle; Barry Humphries; John Waters; Patricia Kennedy
> gives you an idea of how teenage girls were still able to be bitchy and horrible before the advent of texting and Facebook; set in a late 1800's girls college in Melbourne, it follows the school career of an overly-dramatic country girl who tries to fit in with her peers...and, of course, doesn't; pleasant, small story told carefully which crosses over the same ground a couple of times before the kid finally graduates; I especially like the caricature of the suck-lemon-faced headmistress as played by Sir Robert's sister, Sheila Helpmann; Susannah does a nice job as the too-talented-for-her-own-good Laura, and Barry has a great scene as a damnation minister who is an advocate of humiliation as a teaching method
IN AMERICA (2003)
d: Jim Sheridan
CAST: Samantha Morton; Paddy Considine; Djimon Hounsou
> small but affecting film about life for a young Irish family in a scummy Manhattan apartment building; all adults involved are angst-ridden (for good reason...Life can be a right bugger after all), but the two little girls are 100% charming without being sickeningly sweet; deals with the grief over a dead son, an AIDS-ravaged man, emotional fragility and a child who just wants to understand; acting all round is excellent, with the two sisters who play the girls the standouts; US health system proves to be the villain (How can the Yanks have not had a Public Health System?? A $30000 bill? Ridiculous. Give me your tired, your poor...)
Award-Worthy Performances
Sarah Bolger & Emma Bolger
HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004)
d: Alfonso Cuaron
CAST: Daniel Radcliffe; Emma Watson; Rupert Grint; Michael Gambon; Maggie Smith; Robbie Coltrane; Gary Oldman; Alan Rickman; David Thewlis; Julie Christie; Timothy Spall
> I'm not wild about Harry (I've never read any of the novels; I've fallen asleep during two of the movies); this is the film in the franchise which is usually regarded as the best and I guess I would agree (it is the only one I have watched twice); half a dozen terrific set pieces (with a nifty time-travel setup the major pleasure) with swirls of humour and scares thrown in; esteemed British actors are a major plus of course; too long again (why do they do that?), and I still don't entirely know what is going on, but this is an enjoyable fantasy film
A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011)
d: David Cronenberg
CAST: Michael Fassbender; Keira Knightley; Viggo Mortensen; Vincent Cassel
> interesting film about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and S&M; very light and crisply shot which encourages you to be accepting of the increasingly sordid and unstable relationships; Michael is very good as Carl and Viggo is great as Sigmund; unsure if Keira's performance is successful, brave or over-the-top; her Russian accent can't make up its mind either; the growing professional / personal rift between the two men is more engrossing than the rather rugged sexual liaison between Carl and his patient; another film which slyly highlights the "Physician: Heal Thyself" tenet
Award-Worthy Performance
Viggo Mortensen
CAUGHT (1949)
d: Max Ophuls
CAST: James Mason; Barbara Bel Geddes; Robert Ryan; Curt Bois
> there is a lot of soap sloshing around in this film, but the acting, and the backstory, come to the rescue and lift the movie's overall impact; Robert plays a rich bastard = Howard Hughes type (the director Max had a very bitter professional experience with Howard and this film was his cold revenge); James, as always, is able to take cringing, melodramatic dialogue and make it sound emotionally valid; Robert specialised in complex human monsters, and he reaches fearful heights here; unpleasant taste in the mouth at the end when two nice people are so demonstrably happy about a miscarriage
Award-Worthy Performance
Robert Ryan
JINDABYNE (2006)
d: Ray Lawrence
CAST: Laura Linney; Gabriel Byrne; Deborra-Lee Furness; Chris Haywood
> an unsettling film about the three biggies: sex, death & family; in the wilds of Snowy Mountains country New South Wales, four mates go fishing and discover the naked body of a young Aboriginal woman floating in the river; they decide to tether the corpse and continue to fish before reporting the murder; the film deals with the community outrage and retribution for such a seemingly cold response from the men; gorgeous landscape textures mingle with some confronting scenes and imagery; racism rears its ugly head of course; a haunting film which still feels a little empty in both resolution and point
Award-Worthy Performance
Laura Linney
Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 6/4/16 - 16/4/16
MR SATURDAY NIGHT (1992)
d: Billy Crystal
CAST: Billy Crystal; David Paymer; Helen Hunt; Ron Silver
> far too soft and sentimental for a story about an angry "attack" comedian; need to be a fan of American Jewish humour...which I am, in small doses, but here it is relentless; Billy's purpose in life is to host the Oscars (he was the best ever), so branching out into directing and lead acting is an admirable but needless stretch; the old man makeup on him is ghastly, almost clownish; David is pretty good as the long-suffering brother / manager; to give the film a badly needed kick, the lead character should have been made even more reprehensible rather than just a grumpy asshole; too many of the running gags become grating; and Jerry Lewis turns up and does that jerk-voice thing of his
BANJO ON MY KNEE (1936)
d: John Cromwell
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; Joel McCrea; Walter Brennan; Buddy Ebsen
> dozy old story about Mississippi River folk: simple, illiterate jug-swiggers who see the lighter side of drowning; all the bad guys are "land people" who live in nasty, sinful towns; Barb and Joel have an obvious chemistry - shame they never made a film of substance together; Walter Brennan acts with his teeth out again; musical interludes emphasise the overall sappiness; the story is more episodic than flowing, and the running gag (trying to get newlyweds into the marital bed so they can produce a grandchild for Walter) fails to stitch it all together; a barely-entertaining relic that should've been left in the time capsule
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