Movie-Viewing Experiences 21/3/17 - 5/4/17
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Seriously Flawed D = Pretty Awful E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Offensive: The Void
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED (2005)
d: Liev Schreiber
CAST: Elijah Wood; Eugene Hutz; Boris Leskin; Laryssa Lauret
> what a find!; film begins as a piece of whimsy then surreptitiously grows into something much much more; tells the story of a young American nerdy Jew who wants to find the woman who his grandfather loved in WWII Ukraine...the tour guides are a I-wanna-be-an-American-but-I'm-from-Kiev breakdancer, his supposedly-blind antisemitic grandfather and a clearly-demented border collie; buffed up by bouncy Balkanese music, the group goes on a road trip to locate a Ukrainian town which is no longer on the map and nobody has ever heard of; brightly lit with camera placement similar to trademark Wes Anderson, this gently-told comedy metamorphoses into a Holocaust story of great poignancy and horror without ever becoming unbearably bleak; Liev...why aren't you still directing?
STORM WARNING (1951)
d: Stuart Heisler
CAST: Ginger Rogers; Ronald Reagan; Doris Day; Steve Cochran
> Gingers Rogers & Ronald Reagan & Doris Day in a KKK film???...and it's GOOD???; yep, I couldn't believe it either until the strong performance by Ginger (the stuff she did with Fred was always the least of her movie achievements), the good performance by Doris and the high-tension final scene totally won me over; Ginger witnesses a KKK mob-murder but doesn't want to tell prosecutor Ronnie whodunnit due to family loyalty...and pays the price; love the lack of tedious moralizing or oh-brother corniness (although Steve does step perilously close to OTT as the repellent bully); confronting and impressively blunt
Award-Worthy Performance
Ginger Rogers
ELECTION (1999)
d: Alexander Payne
CAST: Matthew Broderick; Reese Witherspoon; Chris Klein; Jessica Campbell
> being an ex-school-teacher after 38 years, I find the part of Tracy Flick (played amusingly by Reese) to be disturbingly familiar...I have taught irritating pains-in-the-arse like her; the need for the teacher (played amusingly by Matthew) to just wipe that shit-eating grin off her face is totally comprehensible; I had a better time with this (lite) black comedy since my retirement; a couple of gripes: the storyline involving the lesbian doesn't seem to really go anywhere + the film doesn't seem to know how to end...just wrapping up all the loose character threads the way it does is writing at its laziest; still...a bit of a hoot
Award-Worthy Performance
Reese Witherspoon
VERA DRAKE (2004)
d: Mike Leigh
CAST: Imelda Staunton; Phil Davis; Daniel Mays; Eddie Marsan
> hmm...a backyard abortionist with a heart of gold who gets nabbed...not many laughs then; unavoidably heavy-going, this story remains compelling throughout and nurtures compassion solely through the amazing performance of Imelda as Vera...this working class woman (lived through the Blitz & has seen very tough times & looks on the bright side whenever possible) just simply wants to help people...old infirms & lonely nerds & angry depressives & reluctantly-pregnant girls; somehow the film doesn't become squalid, but doesn't deliver redemption or phony martyrdom either; quite moving but you do keep your distance
Award-Worthy Performance
Imelda Staunton
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950)
d: Richard Fleischer
CAST: Charles McGraw and other thespians too famous to mention
> nifty heist movie which screams out "Noir!", "RKO!" and "Tight Budget!"; the title trumpets its topic and the era demands that the crims don't get away with it; film critics smarter than me have noted its connection to The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Killing (1956) but I kept thinking of Heat from 1995; efficiently directed and cut together, the film comes in at 67 minutes (!!), not wasting a moment...and therefore, reducing all characters to seen-'em-a-100-times cliches; one murder scene is particularly surprising in its depiction of the just-shot victim; the lack of big-name stars actually helps to rush things along because you don't care what happens to these actors...you just want action; competent & effective
SIMON AND LAURA (1955)
d: Muriel Box
CAST: Peter Finch; Kay Kendall; Ian Carmichael; Muriel Pavlow; Maurice Denham
> decidedly minor but still fairly amusing British comedy about reality television (way ahead of its time, then); Ian the TV producer hits upon the idea of a show which focusses on the "true" life of a married theatrical couple, played well by Peter & Kay (always grab the opportunity to see this sadly short-lived actress...she was terrific); of course, it all goes awry and ends happily with much kissing all round; some funny bits here & there and the climactic meltdown broadcast live into the homes of ordinary Brits is a precursor to the great one in 1982's Tootsie (but in S&L there is certainly a lot more hitting); fine collection of side characters whose faces you'll know add to the overall pretty-good-time
BOTTLE ROCKET (1996)
d: Wes Anderson
CAST: Owen Wilson; Luke Wilson; James Caan; Robert Musgrave
> everybody has to start somewhere; Wes Anderson's debut feature film, it is the essence of "promising"; story about two boy-men (Owen is emotionally pre-teen & Luke is High School) who want to be big-time exciting robbers...without any of the bad stuff; the climactic heist is a comedy gem and easily the film's highlight; some Wes trademarks (eclectic soundtrack choices & deadpan dialogue & determinedly quirky characters on a life mission) with some missing (symmetrical framing & chess-set cast & bundles of intermingling sideplots); bizarrely billed as a Reservoir Dogs send-up on the DVD cover...no, it's not; the shaggy-dog quality of the story holds your interest, but it pales compared to what came after
CHINA SEAS (1935)
d: Tay Garnett
CAST: Clark Gable; Jean Harlow; Wallace Beery; Lewis Stone; Rosalind Russell
> typical MGM assembly-line product...which, in 1935, was a guarantee of quality; set aboard a steamer which chugs between Hong Kong and Singapore, this involves a tough captain (Clark) trying to shrug off the affections of a fun-but-common gal (Jean) while he outwits pirates (secretly led by Wallace) and improve his social status by courting a rich widow (Rosalind); in many ways just a rejig of 1932's Red Dust, but so what?; the early romance shenanigans are a little hohum but are made bearable through the couple-charisma of Clark & Jean; the movie really kicks in when the pirates take over (explosions & ankle-smashing & foot-torture); the side-plots just seem to peter out pointlessly and were obviously put in place as dramatic filler; Robert Benchley appears as an apparently-funny drunk (as usual)
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER (2005)
d: Mike Binder
CAST: Joan Allen; Kevin Costner; Evan Rachel Wood; Erika Christensen; Keri Russell
> in many ways a bog-standard USA comedy-drama about family, this is lifted by angry/bitter Joan as the funny/sad/drunk Mom with four teenage daughters, all deserted by their husband/Dad; Kevin is the neighbour who has his own life/drinking issues; all takes place in an Upper-Middle-Class house & suburb where everyone is good-looking and untouched by anything genuinely important like poverty; the four girls are more like high school friends than sisters; still, it's impossible to dislike these people and there are some amusing scenes; the twist ending lacks believability and seems to be unnecessarily unkind
Award-Worthy Performance
Joan Allen
THE GUINEA PIG aka THE OUTSIDER (1948)
d: Roy Boulting
CAST: Richard Attenborough; Bernard Miles; other Pommies
> starts off promisingly as a swipe at English classism...but transforms into something overtly sentimental and soppy in the final third; working class lad is accepted into an exclusive all-boys school as a social experiment (due to the moral-foundation-shaking of WWII)...gets the usual Tom-Brown's-Schooldays treatment and hates it, but decides to "stick it out" for the sake of his parents; could've been a good up-yours to snobbery & elitism but deteriorates into a Goodbye-Mr-Chips wallow in tradition and there's-a-good-chap triteness; 25 year old Richard does astonishingly well as the 14 year old newboy, but he virtually disappears as the focus shifts to the stuffy schoolmasters who inevitably see the error of their ways; graded leniently in recognition of the best ever use of the word "arse" on film
THE LAST OF SHEILA (1973)
d: Herbert Ross
CAST: Richard Benjamin; Dyan Cannon; James Coburn; Joan Hackett; James Mason; Ian McShane; Raquel Welch
> tries very hard to be an entertaining Agatha-Christie-style murder-mystery but just isn't; single biggest problem is that all of the characters are simply uninteresting (and Dyan & James C are annoying)...you don't care what happens to any of 'em; James Mason, of course, outclasses everybody else actingwise in the uninspiring cast; the other single biggest problem is that, despite the inevitable final-twist, once the murder is committed, it is instantly obvious who the culprit must be; the plot begins cleverly and has a couple of nifty set-ups (love the Chanel No. 5 joke!), but it's as if the writers' smartypants-creativity petered out and they settled for that'll-do; watch 1945's And Then There Were None instead
SARATOGA (1937)
d: Jack Conway
CAST: Clark Gable; Jean Harlow; Lionel Barrymore; Walter Pidgeon; Frank Morgan
> just had to watch this after reading Jean Harlow bio "Bombshell" by David Stenn (Jean died vilely during the filming from nephritis)...you can tell where she dropped out... mostly in the last 15 minutes or so...body & voice doubles were used...very sad; the film itself would still have been a nothing even under the best of circumstances; some rubbish about horseracing & a farm & a gambler & a social-climbing girl & a rich guy etc etc; tries to be a romantic comedy but just pinballs from one standard 30's-style setup to another; classic array of stars and character actors save the sinking ship from complete catastrophe; Jean was very ill throughout the filming and the scenes where she plays sick and needs a doctor's help are uncomfortable to look at...she was only 26...watch Dinner at Eight to see Jean being great
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