THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (1988)
d: Lawrence Kasdan
CAST: William Hurt; Geena Davis; Kathleen Turner; Bill Pullman
> one of the most closely-aligned to the source-novel films I know (read the book or see the film; the story remains exactly the same); hits me hard emotionally; William's performance is gold, totally lacking in blatant tearjerking and crafty grabs for sentiment; Geena is adorable; love the whole theme of "courage is coping with the unimaginable"... and these characters really do have to deal with an absolute life horror; the quirks of the side characters add charm and (actually) a little bit more poignancy to the whole experience; only a brittle cynic could be anti this gem
Award-Worthy Performances
William Hurt; Geena Davis
CITIZEN RUTH (1996)
d: Alexander Payne
CAST: Laura Dern; Mary Kay Place; Swoosie Kurtz; Burt Reynolds; Tippi Hedren
> something wholly unique in filmdom: a comedy about the abortion debate; Ruth, an intoxicant inhaler who is regularly drunk and wasted, discovers she is pregnant yet again and is advised this time to have an abortion (mainly to reduce / avoid jail time); Laura plays Ruth as the eternal no-hoper who is the unwitting rope in a Babysaver Vs Pro-Choicer tug-o'-war; many amusing moments, most of which are supplied by Laura's exasperation and determination to Look Out For #1 and get what she can out of the situation; farcical story with something serious to say
Award-Worthy Performance
Laura Dern
THE RAILWAY MAN (2013)
d: Jonathan Teplitzky
CAST: Colin Firth; Nicole Kidman; Stellan Skarsgard; Hiroyuki Sanada; Jeremy Irvine
> starts off as a charming little love story and suddenly encompasses the WWII horrors of the Burma Railway; the beatings which take place in the POW Camp are necessarily brutal and harrowing - you feel every single blow; Colin is terrific in the lead - probably his best dramatic performance; the final confrontation between captive and torturer is nerve-wracking and it's a credit to all concerned that you really are unsure what Colin is going to do; a true story of inhumanity at its most barbaric, but also subsequent forgiveness and redemption...we can never have enough of those kind of resolutions
Award-Worthy Performance
Colin Firth
STEVE JOBS (2015)
d: Danny Boyle
CAST: Michael Fassbender; Kate Winslet; Jeff Daniels; Seth Rogen
> another movie which I had no initial interest in and was almost immediately interested and impressed; essentially a character study of an arrogant, driven visionary (how many true visionaries aren't arrogant and driven?) who was obviously a bit of a dick but still admired and loved; Michael is the whole box 'n' dice and he is terrific; I was never an Apple geek (I've always resented their whole "our way or the highway" approach to production and marketing) but just like with The Social Network, I was hooked on the story; exceptional script construction and direction with a nifty Bob Dylan soundtrack
Award-Worthy Performance
Michael Fassbender
A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988)
d: Charles Crichton
CAST: John Cleese; Jamie Lee Curtis; Kevin Kline; Michael Palin
> late-period screwball comedy made by an Ealing master and starring a third of the Monty Python team paired with two American non-comedians: how did it possibly work?; some very funny scenes here (poor doggies!) and Kevin is wonderfully moronic as Otto; surprised that John and Jamie didn't pursue more roles like this (he has a touch of the Ian Carmichaels; she recalls Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve); Personal Bias Alert: while I believe that everything is entitled to be made comic (except genocide of course), Michael's twist-faced stuttering is uncomfortable...I can see why it was attacked by the similarly afflicted
Award-Worthy Performance
Kevin Kline
GASLIGHT (1940)
d: Thorold Dickinson
CAST: Anton Walbrook; Diana Wynyard; Frank Pettingell; Cathleen Cordell; Robert Newton
> the original British film which MGM tried to buy up all copies of and destroy when it did the more-famous 1944 remake with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer; this is the better movie though - 1944 went for a lush gothic and noirish feel whereas this one lets the period-setting set the style; Diana is thankfully less histrionic and shows more gumption than Ingrid, and Anton is an acting match for Charles; only the 1944 Angela Lansbury as the sluttish, scheming housemaid is superior; Thorold is one of the great overlooked Golden Age directors - his manipulation of imagery and economic storytelling skills are on show here
BAT*21 (1988)
d: Peter Markle
CAST: Gene Hackman; Danny Glover; Jerry Reed
> I read somewhere that this is considered the great lost Vietnam War movie...but let's face it...there's not much competition (1978's Go Tell the Spartans gets my vote); usual war film suspense-makers: a deserted village which really isn't / bad-guy soldiers walking past a good-guy soldier hiding in the nearby bushes / being forced through a minefield; Gene & Danny are typical and decent All-American Joes who hate war & killing but, for some reason, still do it anyway; the carpet-bombing scene is appropriately terrifying; a war film which is nearly anti-war enough to suit me
KIM (1950)
d: Victor Saville
CAST: Dean Stockwell; Errol Flynn; Paul Lukas; Cecil Kellaway
> a childhood favourite of mine which, while I freely admit its many flaws (sluggish direction by Victor + half-hearted performance by Errol + dreadfully obvious studio shots + every Indian cliche under the sun + unintentionally funny rockslide), still gives me pleasure whenever I see it (it helps if you were a Boy Scout in the old days when Kim's Game and Baden-Powell were still part of the propaganda); lovely location shots of India in glorious technicolor; Dean is better in the title role than the originally-proposed, pre-outbreak of WWII Freddie Bartholomew (not the action-boy type) would've been; always liked Paul Lukas as the Holy Man too
45 YEARS (2015)
d: Andrew Haigh
CAST: Charlotte Rampling; Tom Courtenay
> a little movie about a long-married couple (guess how long for?) whose commitment to each other is strained by the discovery (entombed in a glacier!) of the husband's first true love; the whole film rides on the back of Charlotte as she struggles with the found-knowledge that she was always Number 2 in her husband's life, and always will be; fortunately, Charlotte is up to the acting challenge: she is superb; the film is a little too civilized and gentle for my taste (more could've been made of the sex and attic scenes), but still affecting
Award-Worthy Performance
Charlotte Rampling
BLACK AND WHITE (2002)
d: Craig Lahiff
CAST: Robert Carlyle; Kerry Fox; Charles Dance; David Ngoombujarra; Ben Mendelsohn
> Australian docu-drama about an infamous 1959 murder trial (Aboriginal man sentenced to death for the rape & killing of a 9-year-old girl) which turned on very questionable evidence; movie moves along at a brisk pace (maybe too brisk), brushing over the initial events so it can get stuck into its main targets: the corrupt police, the ravenous press, the right-wing establishment and the self-righteous judiciary; David is terrific as the accused, buffeted by both the well-meaning and the blatantly-racist white guys; although Robert and Charles do a fine job, I wish these feature roles had been played by Aussies, just because...
Award-Worthy Performance
David Ngoombujarra
Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 19/2/16 - 8/3/16
THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948)
d: Joseph Losey
CAST: Dean Stockwell; Pat O'Brien; Robert Ryan
> one of the downright weirdest movies ever made; an American boy loses his parents in the WWII London Blitz, lives with a singing waiter who insists on being called Gramps, and one day, after a bath, the boy's hair turns bright green; now also throw in a couple of twinklingly-cute Irish songs and a bunch of imaginary war orphans who beg TBWTGH to use his emerald moptop as a symbol of hope or peace (or something); a message film I guess, but isn't "War is dangerous for children" already pretty much taken for granted?; bizarre bizarre bizarre; Joseph Losey...you've done it again
PAPERHOUSE (1988)
d: Bernard Rose
CAST: Charlotte Burke; Ben Cross; Glenne Headly; Gemma Jones
> what a stupid movie; a fantasy / horror flick about an 11 year old girl with glandular fever (!) who draws a house then inhabits it in her dreams; something about her father being a monster out to get her (then he isn't) and a boy with legs which don't work and parents who are having marital difficulties; one of the most unappealing and zero-charisma performances by a child actress ever (no wonder it was Charlotte's only film); not sure how I was supposed to respond to this (certainly wasn't scared or creeped out) so I had a nap on the couch instead
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