Movie-Viewing Experiences 18/4/17 - 14/5/17
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 & Repugnant: The Void
OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS (1951)
A SECOND VIEWING
d: Carol Reed
CAST: Trevor Howard; Ralph Richardson; Robert Morley; Wendy Hiller
> often-overlooked adaptation of a Joseph Conrad novel...perhaps because it was Carol's next film after the jaw-dropping brilliance of The Third Man that inclined critics to be dismissive, but I'm having none of it; Trevor plays a leech who ends up being kicked out of of a SE Asian port and stuck in a nearby trading village...boredom settles in and so does lust for a local lass, with dire consequences for all; one of the rare depictions on film of self-destructive obsession which actually manages to ring true, this is no tropical paradise adventure...you are in Mr. Conrad's (and Mr. Reed's) version of Hell, its black hole emerging from a pathetic man's soul
Award-Worthy Performances
Trevor Howard; Ralph Richardson
GET OUT (2017)
A- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Jordan Peele
CAST: Daniel Kaluuya; Allison Williams; Bradley Whitford; Catherine Keener
> quite possibly the darkest comedy I have ever seen; I kept recalling the BBCTV series The League of Gentlemen due to the upfront paranoia, awkwardness of situations and the bizarro is-it-humour; starts off as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (young black man goes to meet his white girlfriend's WASPy parents) then metamorphoses into The Wicker Man (everyone he meets is peculiar and it becomes apparent that he is there for another reason); different moods which would normally clash somehow gel in this to create a satisfying whole; the film has something significant to say about the inevitability of racism and does so without actually coming out and saying it to your face; funny, scary, uncomfortable, different
OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS (1951)
d: Carol Reed
CAST: Trevor Howard; Ralph Richardson; Robert Morley; Wendy Hiller
> often-overlooked adaptation of a Joseph Conrad novel...perhaps because it was Carol's next film after the jaw-dropping brilliance of The Third Man that inclined critics to be dismissive, but I'm having none of it; Trevor plays a leech who ends up being kicked out of of a SE Asian port and stuck in a nearby trading village...boredom settles in and so does lust for a local lass, with dire consequences for all; one of the rare depictions on film of self-destructive obsession which actually manages to ring true, this is no tropical paradise adventure...you are in Mr. Conrad's (and Mr. Reed's) version of Hell, its black hole emerging from a pathetic man's soul
Award-Worthy Performances
Trevor Howard; Ralph Richardson
GET OUT (2017)
d: Jordan Peele
CAST: Daniel Kaluuya; Allison Williams; Bradley Whitford; Catherine Keener
> quite possibly the darkest comedy I have ever seen; I kept recalling the BBCTV series The League of Gentlemen due to the upfront paranoia, awkwardness of situations and the bizarro is-it-humour; starts off as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (young black man goes to meet his white girlfriend's WASPy parents) then metamorphoses into The Wicker Man (everyone he meets is peculiar and it becomes apparent that he is there for another reason); different moods which would normally clash somehow gel in this to create a satisfying whole; the film has something significant to say about the inevitability of racism and does so without actually coming out and saying it to your face; funny, scary, uncomfortable, different
THE STRANGE DOOR (1951)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Joseph Pevney
CAST: Charles Laughton; Boris Karloff; Richard Stapley; Sally Forrest
> based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, this is a costume-creepy with many of the standard gothic attributes: gloomy castle with hidden rooms & a madman prisoner & a cruelhearted lord-of-the-manor & a single loyal servant & a damsel in distress & a reluctant hero & a peephole & a dungeon; as usual, it's hard to tell if Charles is terrific or hammy but at least he pushes things along; Boris is relegated to a fairly minor supporting role but at least it supplies him with a good final scene; the underground waterwheel is a ripper and is the mechanism behind my all-time fave movie torture device...the ol' walls-closing-in set-up, which has never been done better than here; a solid old-time thriller
20,000 YEARS IN SING SING (1932)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Curtiz
CAST: Spencer Tracy; Bette Davis; Arthur Byron; Louis Calhern
> wannabe-tough prison picture which has a soft, mushy heart; while probably quite a statement in 1932, it was surpassed by Curtiz's 1938 Angels With Dirty Faces (which is also tough with a soft centre, but everything in it had major impact); Spencer plays the crim role originally intended for Cagney (of course) and does a fair job of it; Bette looks very pretty and suffers well as the just-luv-my-man girlfriend; some incongruous injections of humour...including the dumb "wisecracking in the face of death" routine (by the guys on Death Row); a nifty punch-up between Spence and Louis perks things up a bit near the end...they just about demolish the room!...which makes up for the rather lackluster attempted jailbreak part way; a little creaky but still enjoyable
THE CRUCIBLE (1996)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Nicholas Hytner
CAST: Daniel Day-Lewis; Winona Ryder; Paul Scofield; Joan Allen; Bruce Davison
> I read Arthur Miller's play about the Salem Witch Trials back in High School, and I was infuriated by the sheer injustice of the event (hey...I was 15); now, of course, it is the metaphor for all hysterical persecution (where would social media be without it?); the movie resurrected that fury and frustration in me, so while I find it profoundly moving, it doesn't tend to move too far away from being the Mother of all Cautionary Tales and that's all; Winona does well as one of literature's/history's ultimate villainesses but it is Joan who shines as a thrice-time victim; strangely draggy in spots with a couple of odd casting choices
Award-Worthy Performance
Joan Allen
THE GAY FALCON (1941)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Irving Reis
CAST: George Sanders; Allen Jenkins; Wendy Barrie; Gladys Cooper; Nina Vale
> #1 in a 16-film series of "The Falcon" (a copycat of "The Saint" series which RKO used to produce but ditched after the author/creator became difficult... that series starred George too); a second-stringer movie which is lifted higher by the strong script and the light, comedic performances of lead and support players (especially Allen Jenkins, one of the great scene-stealing character actors of the golden era); the "Gay" adjective in the title is actually the private eye's first name & The Falcon is his nickname... no, I don't know why; an entertaining murder-mystery-comedy without a drop of film-noir in sight
Award-Worthy Performance
Allen Jenkins
SWISS ARMY MAN (2016)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Daniel Scheinert; Daniel Kwan
CAST: Paul Dano; Daniel Radcliffe; Mary Elizabeth Winstead
> the best I can come up with to describe this peculiar movie is this compound: Robinson Crusoe + Donnie Darko + Monty Python; very funny in parts (if you're into fart jokes...and come on...who isn't?), I kept thinking that it would've made a terrific half-hour episode of Ripping Yarns; story is about a marooned man who discovers a corpse washed up onto the beach...which becomes not only his Wilson the Volleyball but also a handy survival resource; about two-thirds of the way in, the film tries to establish something resembling emotional depth and even spirituality (the meaning of life & love of course) and messes up its momentum but it's possible that I took it too seriously and therefore missed out on what was actually just another jokey premise; definitely a re-watcher...and soon, too
THE MAGIC BOX (1951)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: John Boulting
CAST: Robert Donat; Maria Schell; Janette Scott
> OK biopic about British moving pictures pioneer William Friese-Greene (no, I'd never heard of him either...which I guess is why this film was made); while Robert does a splendid job of portraying the obsessiveness and social isolation of an inventor, the story still comes across as a little bland, mainly because the film is just too reverent and gentle; the Where's Wally cameos by great actors from British cinema (Olivier, Redgrave, Rutherford etc etc) add a pleasing diversion; curiously, the film's most striking scene is when the poor old neglected bugger drops dead and the camera is already in position to give you a closeup
Award-Worthy Performance
Robert Donat
20,000 YEARS IN SING SING (1932)
d: Michael Curtiz
CAST: Spencer Tracy; Bette Davis; Arthur Byron; Louis Calhern
> wannabe-tough prison picture which has a soft, mushy heart; while probably quite a statement in 1932, it was surpassed by Curtiz's 1938 Angels With Dirty Faces (which is also tough with a soft centre, but everything in it had major impact); Spencer plays the crim role originally intended for Cagney (of course) and does a fair job of it; Bette looks very pretty and suffers well as the just-luv-my-man girlfriend; some incongruous injections of humour...including the dumb "wisecracking in the face of death" routine (by the guys on Death Row); a nifty punch-up between Spence and Louis perks things up a bit near the end...they just about demolish the room!...which makes up for the rather lackluster attempted jailbreak part way; a little creaky but still enjoyable
THE CRUCIBLE (1996)
d: Nicholas Hytner
CAST: Daniel Day-Lewis; Winona Ryder; Paul Scofield; Joan Allen; Bruce Davison
> I read Arthur Miller's play about the Salem Witch Trials back in High School, and I was infuriated by the sheer injustice of the event (hey...I was 15); now, of course, it is the metaphor for all hysterical persecution (where would social media be without it?); the movie resurrected that fury and frustration in me, so while I find it profoundly moving, it doesn't tend to move too far away from being the Mother of all Cautionary Tales and that's all; Winona does well as one of literature's/history's ultimate villainesses but it is Joan who shines as a thrice-time victim; strangely draggy in spots with a couple of odd casting choices
Award-Worthy Performance
Joan Allen
THE GAY FALCON (1941)
d: Irving Reis
CAST: George Sanders; Allen Jenkins; Wendy Barrie; Gladys Cooper; Nina Vale
> #1 in a 16-film series of "The Falcon" (a copycat of "The Saint" series which RKO used to produce but ditched after the author/creator became difficult... that series starred George too); a second-stringer movie which is lifted higher by the strong script and the light, comedic performances of lead and support players (especially Allen Jenkins, one of the great scene-stealing character actors of the golden era); the "Gay" adjective in the title is actually the private eye's first name & The Falcon is his nickname... no, I don't know why; an entertaining murder-mystery-comedy without a drop of film-noir in sight
Award-Worthy Performance
Allen Jenkins
SWISS ARMY MAN (2016)
d: Daniel Scheinert; Daniel Kwan
CAST: Paul Dano; Daniel Radcliffe; Mary Elizabeth Winstead
> the best I can come up with to describe this peculiar movie is this compound: Robinson Crusoe + Donnie Darko + Monty Python; very funny in parts (if you're into fart jokes...and come on...who isn't?), I kept thinking that it would've made a terrific half-hour episode of Ripping Yarns; story is about a marooned man who discovers a corpse washed up onto the beach...which becomes not only his Wilson the Volleyball but also a handy survival resource; about two-thirds of the way in, the film tries to establish something resembling emotional depth and even spirituality (the meaning of life & love of course) and messes up its momentum but it's possible that I took it too seriously and therefore missed out on what was actually just another jokey premise; definitely a re-watcher...and soon, too
THE MAGIC BOX (1951)
d: John Boulting
CAST: Robert Donat; Maria Schell; Janette Scott
> OK biopic about British moving pictures pioneer William Friese-Greene (no, I'd never heard of him either...which I guess is why this film was made); while Robert does a splendid job of portraying the obsessiveness and social isolation of an inventor, the story still comes across as a little bland, mainly because the film is just too reverent and gentle; the Where's Wally cameos by great actors from British cinema (Olivier, Redgrave, Rutherford etc etc) add a pleasing diversion; curiously, the film's most striking scene is when the poor old neglected bugger drops dead and the camera is already in position to give you a closeup
Award-Worthy Performance
Robert Donat
THEIR FINEST (2016)
d: Lone Scherfig
CAST: Gemma Arterton; Sam Clafin; Bill Nighy; Richard E. Grant
> pleasant but pretty-much-generic BBCTV-style production set in WWII-blitzed London; target audience is clearly the retired / walking-framed / only-go-and-see-a-movie-occasionally-because-there's-too-much-sex-and-swearing-in-movies-nowadays crowd, so the plot tends towards the simplistic, predictable and is carried out by characters who are generally nice (no, no...I am not an ageist...I, too, am knocking louder on Heaven's door...I'm just saying...); Gemma is a screenwriter for British propaganda films who is trying to juggle her lovelife with her working reponsibilties as the bombs fall; Bill steals the show of course...once he slips into his Love, Actually persona, nobody else stands a chance
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017)
d: James Gunn
CAST: Chris Pratt; Zoe Saldana; Dave Bautista; Bradley Cooper; Michael Rooker; Vin Diesel; Kurt Russell; Karen Gillan
> disappointing; after the taken-by-surprise charm and impact of the first, this one tries to replicate and deviate at the same time...something old & something new...but the old comes across as a bit forced (the Chris & Zoe romantic-tension thing; the funny violence) and the new doesn't come across effectively (the whole soggy "We Are Family" motif & yes, Baby Groot...who is not as endearing and adorable as the trailers make out); Dave is a hoot as Drax; SFX are stunning as is to be expected (although 3D / 2D doesn't matter); the music choices were not as grabby as last time; simply just not as good as #1
THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE (2017)
d: Niki Caro
CAST: Jessica Chasatin; Johan Heldenbergh; Daniel Bruhl
> a Holocaust story which comes across as too slick and simple; the good people are very very good and the bad people are etc.; Jessica puts on her best Sophie's Choice accent as the title character who helps her husband rescue Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto; I wonder if Daniel is sick to death of playing Nazi bastards?; Jessica's superpowers of elephant / camel / hippo-whispering are a bit much and all the beasts come across as passive housepets; a couple of affecting scenes (guaranteed tearjerker: the kids putting their arms up to be helped onto the carriages to Auschwitz) but not as many as there should be; everyone looks like they're quite well-fed and cared for...and the bunnies are really cute too
SUPERGIRL (1984)
d: Jeannot Szwarc
CAST: Helen Slater; Faye Dunaway; Peter O'Toole; Mia Farrow; Peter Cook
> right down there with 1997's Batman & Robin and 1987's Superman IV: Quest for Peace as the ghastliest of superhero movies; wince at the so-called SFX which seem to belittle similar visual effects in great films like 2001: A Space Odyssey; cringe along with usually-wonderful actors like Peter O'Toole and Mia Farrow as they earnestly try to act earnest...and wonder why the @$!# Peter Cook is in it at all, dumping on his once legitimate claim to comedic greatness; watch (between fingers) Faye Dunaway proving how cardbroad (sic) she can truly be without even a whiff of self-awareness; and finally, drown-out-by-yelling-rude-words Helen Slater every time she opens her golly-gee mouth; rancid celluloid offal
Got something you want to tell me?
Go right ahead.
