Best Movie-Viewing Experiences 28/09/15 - 9/10/15
THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986)
d: Jean-Jacques Annaud
CAST: Sean Connery; Christian Slater; F. Murray Abraham
> it is the critical consensus to bag this film, but I've always loved it; a murder-mystery set in the Spanish Inquisition days with a sprinkling of gallows-humour & sex & violence; Sean is great fun as the medieval detective (whose Scottish accent is irrelevant, OK you nitpickers?); beautifully baroque set design with appropriately gloomy cinematography; wonderfully gnarled faces on the supporting cast; plot moves along briskly with just enough confusion to keep you wholly attentive; for broadminded fans of Inspector Morse and Poroit
Award-Worthy Performance
Sean Connery
SAFE (1995)
d: Todd Haynes
CAST: Julianne Moore
> a story for our times (and our children's): a woman becomes allergic to the world, so her options are to be healthy & alone or sick & social; Julianne is wonderful as the Barbie Doll housewife (love her little controlled voice!) who only really knows how to consume and be polite; interesting undercurrent of feminism and rebellion which even dares to poke fun at good intentions (the retreat as hippie cult; love & peace as bullshit); ominous ambient music gives the film an edge of creepiness, like there is something monstrous lurking about
Award-Worthy Performance
Julianne Moore
THE MARTIAN (2015)
d: Ridley Scott
CAST: Matt Damon; Jessica Chastain; Jeff Daniels; Chiwetel Ejiofor
> totally fascinating Robinson-Crusoe-on-Mars tale; Matt does his everyman thing (which he is so good at) while he "sciences the shit" out of his marooned existence; supporting cast are nice people all and therefore, a little wooden; SFX and scenery are stunning; set pieces (Martian storm, the rescue, all the no-gravity scenes of course) are beautifully done as you would expect from Ridley; maybe about 20 minutes too long (a couple of draggy spots); great fun, although probably destined for a B+ on second viewing
MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932)
d: Robert Florey
CAST: Bela Lugosi; Leon Ames
> so worried this was going to be another bloke-in-a-gorilla-suit flick, but Florey cleverly shoots it so the ape always seems to be a real one; absolutely gorgeous cinematography (very goth; very Germanic) and lovingly-made sets; Bela is Bela and, in 1932, that was still okay; screaming damsel-in-distress being kidnapped by a large monkey preempts the more famous KK the next year; good use of quirky character actors in side spots; interesting use of Darwinism as the motivation behind the evil scientist's depraved acts
HOMICIDAL (1961)
d: William Castle
CAST: Jean Arless; Glenn Corbett
> B-Grade schlock shocker that tries to out-twist Psycho and out-kink Glen or Glenda; doesn't succeed of course, but in some ways it's more fun than either of them; love the "fright break" timer, which gives you the opportunity to leave the movie if it's scaring you too much (isn't that thoughtful?); acting is acceptable and the horror bits are tastefully subdued (even the decapitation!); if you know nothing about the surprise denouement, you'll probably still figure it out - but it doesn't seem to really matter anyway
JUST IMAGINE (1930)
d: David Butler
CAST: El Brendel; Maureen O'Sullivan; John Garrick; Frank Albertson
> I know I've overrated this, but it's just such a damned cute curio: a 1930 science-fiction musical comedy(!!); set in 1980, this has the usual predict-the-future features (flying cars, videophones, rampant bureaucracy) and the just-can't-imagine-life-without-them features (sexism, Art-Deco design, lousy songwriting); some funny one-liners, a supposed comic named El Brendel who at least tries hard, and some wonderfully quaint SFX (love the New York peak hour!) nearly pardon the awful travel-to-Mars segment; the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials (not to mention The Jetsons and Duck Dodgers) took a few ideas from this
THE MAMBO KINGS (1992)
d: Arne Glimcher
CAST: Armand Assante; Antonio Banderas
> didn't think I'd like this much because I didn't think I liked Cuban music much - wrong on both counts; the music is (there is no other word for it) fabulous and the soundtrack led me to an album by Orlando Cachaito Lopez which I now cherish; wish the story had a bit more guts to it rather than a fairly skimpy framework to hang the music onto; Armand is riveting in the lead, tip-toeing perilously close to OTT at times, but this matches the big emotions of the music; the recurring love song is unfortunately quite naff
Award-Worthy Performance
Armand Assante
ESCAPE (1948)
d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
CAST: Rex Harrison; Peggy Cummins
> effective man-on-the-run flick; goes against the usual falsely-accused hero - Rex really is guilty of manslaughter; some interesting little touches: prisoners in the mist, recurring theme of weak people who mean well, the 39 Steps style desperate dash through the moors; all the "original sin" malarkey and other attempts to make this a spiritual quest are annoyingly needless; Peggy Cummins was an interesting, undervalued actress with an "up-yours" strength which was so unusual for a British actress of the period; ever-so-polite English villagers add their usual character charm; ending is a bit of a letdown, but I can't think of a better one
THE FLY (1986)
d: David Cronenberg
CAST: Jeff Goldblum; Geena Davis
> one of the most amusing horror/sci-fi movies ever made; this is the role that Jeff was born to play: mad scientist who goes from eccentric nerd to pitiful monster...and play it very well he does, with accentuated hand gestures, goggle-eyed enthusiasm and fluid body movement; gross-out makeup & SFX are never entirely repugnant; while the humour is appreciated, it does cut back the degree of tragedy which is what prevents the basic story from being supreme camp; clever and quirky, but not entirely involving
Award-Worthy Performance
Jeff Goldblum
SONS OF MATTHEW (1949)
d: Charles Chauvel
CAST: Michael Pate; Ken Wayne; Tommy Burns; Wendy Gibb
> totally impossible to be objective about this landmark Australian film, so I won't even try; I can forgive the turgid Cain & Abel plot and the crappy dialogue (especially when they rave on about L-U-V) because I'm just so moved by the gorgeous B&W visions of the Border Country region of Queensland; reminds me of D.W. Griffith's Way Down East in grandeur and epic melodrama; while it breaks my heart to see rainforest giants being felled, it sure is spectacular; just wish it had been made in, say, 1932, so the label "throwback" could be avoided; still, a monumental achievement in Aussie cinema. So there.
Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 28/09/15 - 9/10/15
TRUE STORIES (1986)
d: David Byrne
CAST: David Byrne; John Goodman; Spalding Gray; Swoosie Kurtz
> how quirky can you get, and why would you want to find out?; it wants to be amusing and engaging but it forgot to be fun (the only thing I laughed at was a fart joke...maybe it's me); like the Talking heads album of the same name, it has four good songs and five crap ones; I think the film is trying to say something about modern existence circa 1986, but I'm stuffed if I can work out what it is; as tends to be the norm with pet film projects from Arty types, this has some clever ideas and scenes, but I wish it had just told a good story, true or otherwise
DIVE BOMBER (1941)
d: Michael Curtiz
CAST: Errol Flynn; Fred MacMurray; Ralph Bellamy; Alexis Smith
> quite dull but it does have nice technicolour; pro-war propaganda like this should be kept in a museum as an historical artifact, not promoted as an entertainment; an aerial-fetish film made before Pearl Harbour (so the Americans aren't too gung-ho yet), loaded with flying formations, aircraft carriers, great-guy pilots, self-sacrifice; wants to show that armed conflict isn't all bad because good stuff gets invented for it, like pressure suits; remember Masted's Law: "the only good war movie is an anti-war movie"
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