BEGIN AGAIN (2013)
d: John Carney
CAST: Keira Knightley; Mark Ruffalo; Catherine Keener; Hailee Steinfeld
> I really like this movie...I mean, yeah, sure...one puff and it would blow away, but so what, you know?; a blend of two of the all-time great movie plot cliches (boy meets girl etc + hey let's start a band and put on a show), there are no villains, just truly nice people who you enjoy getting to know; while Mark is the stand-out, everyone is spot-on in their roles; best of all, the songs are genuinely good to listen to (in a poppy Aimee Mann / Freedy Johnston kinda way); my only gripe is that I never met anyone like these people and I was in a pub band for 10 years; the track "Tell Me If You Wanna Go Home" shoulda been a hit
SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO (1960)
d: Vincent J. Donehue
CAST: Ralph Bellamy; Greer Garson; Hume Cronyn; Jean Hagen
> recently watched the entire 14 hour Ken Burns doco about the Roosevelts (you gotta see it by the way) and was spurred on to re-view this personal fave; quite refreshing to have a bio-drama which so closely sticks to what, by most firsthand accounts, actually happened (only Franklin's covert infidelity is totally expunged); the kids are pretty ghastly and Mama needs a stronger telling-off and it certainly dawdles in its telling, but the story and the man are rousing; Ralph & Greer both deliver the performances of their careers
Award-Worthy Performances
Ralph Bellamy; Greer Garson
DAVE (1993)
d: Ivan Reitman
CAST: Kevin Kline; Sigourney Weaver; Frank Langella; Charles Grodin; Ben Kingsley
> dreadful American self-hugging schmaltz 'n' hokum which I happen to love; full of political cartoons and left-wing ideals which take the place of characters; still, it's a lovely fantasy brimming with nice and good; could've done without the penis joke; Kevin was so good at this light comedy stuff, so why he kept straying off into serious drama which he was only ever so-so at I'll never know; sigh...don't you wish that politicians were really like this and politics really was this warm and cuddly and un-sinister, yeah?
Award-Worthy Performance
Kevin Kline
CHANGELING (2008)
d: Clint Eastwood
CAST: Angelina Jolie; John Malkovich; Amy Ryan
> true story of made up of potentially repellant components which is made endurable and absorbing through the skills of Clint; abducted little boy + corrupt 1920's LA police force + keeping the "little woman" in her place + psychiatry as an armed force + the most heinous of serial killings; Angelina is a perfectly-plausible citizen of this era; side actors all do their jobs competently but it is only when the story switches to the evils of what is going on at the farm that the mood truly hardens and chills; the last 15 minutes coulda been lopped off
Award-Worthy Performance
Angelina Jolie
P.S. I bought a copy of 2000's The Road Out of Hell by Anthony Flacco which tells in great detail exactly what went on in "The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders". I got through a third of the book and just had to stop. It is graphic and revolting.
GOLDSTONE (2016)
d: Ivan Sen
CAST: Aaron Pederson; Alex Russell; Jacki Weaver; David Wenham; David Gulpilil
> pretty good Aussie detective movie set in the outback; apparently this is a sequel to a 2013 flick called Mystery Road (which I never saw) featuring Aaron in the same role; while the romance of the outback has always eluded me (too many bloody flies & the place only kicks in emotionally at sunset) it sure looks fantastic up there on the big screen; overuse of the drone camera-shot lessens its overall impact; usual conspiracy 'n' corruption yarn successfully put across by strong acting; dawdles a bit though and has some cliched characters (mean bikies & wise oldfellas); big American-style shootout seems out of place
DEEP VALLEY (1947)
d: Jean Negulesco
CAST: Ida Lupino; Dane Clark; Fay Bainter; Henry Hull; Wayne Morris
> lonely backwoods girl is trapped in an isolated existence between two feuding parents...along comes an escaped convict and everyone's lives are suddenly improved (except for the fugitive of course...usual comeuppance for him); some subtle undercurrent extras are stirred in (domestic violence; speech disability; destructive Progress vs healing Nature); Ida is lovely in the main role and manages to keep her tendency towards OTT emotionality in check; minor but engrossing with only a touch of the turgids
Award-Worthy Performance
Ida Lupino
THE WESTERNER (1940)
d: William Wyler
CAST: Gary Cooper; Walter Brennan
> regardless of reputation among cow-punchers, this is a minor western; undeniable charisma supplied by two leads (of course); a retelling of Judge Roy Bean & Lillie Langtry story which is heavy on the myth and light on the facts (and that's perfectly okay by me); Walter is pretty much the whole show and for some bizarre reason I kept thinking of Heath Ledger's Joker throughout the movie...huh?; Gary does his laconic tall-drink-of-water routine and there is enough gunplay, dustclouds and exaggerated humour to satisfy John Ford and Howard Hawks fans; big final shootout in the theatre is strangely anticlimactic
Award-Worthy Performance
Walter Brennan
d: Anthony Mann
CAST: Robert Cummings; Richard Basehart; Arlene Dahl; Arnold Moss
> French Revolution movie whose melodramatic mindset is instantly revealed by its introduction of Robespierre ("a fanatic with a powdered wig and a twisted mind"...oh brother); striking imagery and creative camera placement is almost too impressive, swamping the routine story; however, the extreme paranoia of the times is effectively portrayed; strictly C-Grade cast blights it somewhat (Robert & Arlene are awful, which is hardly news); lotsa chatter, some torture, but only one guillotining, which seems a bit of a wasted opportunity; ironic punchline at the end is just stupid
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962)
d: Lewis Milestone
CAST: Marlon Brando; Trevor Howard; Richard Harris; Hugh Griffith
> although the great maritime story is too formidable to completely wreck, this movie has a decent try at it; Trevor is an acceptable Bligh and Marlon is not that bad as a foppish Fletcher Christian (although he's about as English as Mitsubishi); gorgeous scenic and sea-faring shots (the copy I viewed was a BluRay); nice to see Aussie film icon Chips Rafferty among the crew; spectacle is no substitute for pace and that's what kills this: just too bloody slow; once the ship reaches land, it becomes a snoozefest, and the fact that you already know what's going to happen doesn't help things; and Marlon should've died faster too
KID GALAHAD (1937)
d: Michael Curtiz
CAST: Edward G. Robinson; Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Harry Carey
> boxing 'n' gangsters flick of the typical 1930's Warner Brothers style; this one emphasises melodrama over action though, which is unusual; clean cut kid gets roped into the corrupt fight game (yawn); Eddie G vs Bogie is the to-be-expected battle of the charismatics; some walking bottle of skim milk called Wayne Morris is the sappy title character; always great to have Harry around; Bette is the good nice girl which was never a fit for her (and even worse, she is also a nightclub singer...ahahahahahaha...); it would've been better if they had stuck her in the ring to slug it out; Bette would've wiped the floor with them all
ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1953)
d: Charles Lamont
CAST: Abbott & Costello; Boris Karloff; Reginald Denny
> one of the few A&C films I didn't see when I was a kid...and that was no great loss as it turns out; a horror/comedy where the horror is better than the comedy but the horror is still pretty lame; some patronising sexist scenes which grate; where are all the usually cool body transformations??; poor poor Boris having to sink to something as lousy as this...he's a natural for the classic dual role and I would've loved to have seen his take on it twenty years earlier; Abbott has put on a bit of weight and Costello has lost some and both do their tired old crap; Bugs Bunny and Sylvester the Cat did far funnier cartoon take-offs of this iconic horror tale so my sage advice is to watch those instead
DEVIL'S KNOT (2013)
d: Atom Egoyan
CAST: Colin Firth; Reese Witherspoon; Bruce Greenwood
> worst true-murder film since 2001's Bully; focus is shifted from the three murdered boys and the three falsely-accused boys to a brooding, noble investigator and a grieving, noble mum; film can't make up its mind if it's a straight docudrama, whodunnit horror, Lovely Bones fantasy or Twin Peaks bizarro; performances range from the comatose to the ridiculous; one early confronting scene never goes away; so ineptly made that it feels disrespectful; watch the three Paradise Lost documentaries instead and be rightfully appalled; this is from the same guy who made The Sweet Hereafter?
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